Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba is poised to become the "next Facebook" in the stock market, according to financial news site Investor Place.
Shares in the Jack Ma-led company have surged more than 40 percent over the last three months, driven by its impressive revenue growth.
The company's shift to mobile is said to have boosted its figures. Like Facebook, Alibaba's shares disappointed investors during its transition to mobile, falling more than 50 percent.
The similar pattern was seen in Facebook, when the social media company's share price dropped to $17.73 from $38 while shifting its focus to mobile from desktop.
"For both [companies], this was a deflationary shift in the early days until mobile monetization eventually caught up then surpassed desktop," Rob Sanderson at MKM Partners was quoted as saying by Benzinga.
Similar to the U.S.-based social media company, Alibaba can also bank heavily on mobile advertising to reap more gains in the long term.
In addition to this, the e-commerce group may also be looking at near-term catalyst once the ongoing probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) turns out to be a one-off event. An outcome favoring the Chinese group will likely pacify investors wary about the current probe into the company's accounting practices.
In August, Alibaba recorded its best revenue growth despite SEC's investigation but it kept mum on the said case.
"Today, the top six institutional U.S. internet mega-cap investment funds are significantly underweight Alibaba stock. If [Alibaba] gets the "all clear" from the SEC at some point, those funds would need to buy roughly 800 million shares of Alibaba stock just to get equal weight," wrote Investor Place.
"Mobile monetization, institutional buying, accelerating revenue growth, a reasonable valuation and SEC-driven transparency could be just what [Alibaba] needs to repeat [Facebook's] five-year run from $17 to $130," the news website added.