As such, Alibaba carries a lot of water on its path to global domination. First, there is no historical precedent for a consumer brand emerging from China. The world is used to global brands from the United States and Europe, and more recently from Japan and South Korea, but not from China. Chinese firms face associations (legitimate or not) of labor exploitation, counterfeit goods, patent infringement, and governmental interference. Those characteristics are inconsistent with the Western values that underpin aspirational brands. And it hasn’t helped that Alibaba’s early reputation was tainted by claims that many of its small retailers were disreputable.

In sum, the parent brand “China” provides an unwelcome halo of “We may not be cool, but we are corrupt.” In high school, the “Bad Boy” who was also lame did not get laid.