Chinese e-commerce portal Alibaba.com soared on its debut on the Hong Kong stock market Tuesday,
with its share price nearly tripling. .... But analysts said the rise was unsustainable, and that speculators were driving up the price in order to maximize profits.
Alibaba.com is one of China's fastest growing Internet companies. Its registered members soared to 24.6 million in 2007 from 6 million in 2004. Paying members increased to 255,000 by June 2007 from 77,000 in 2004...... The company recorded a net profit of 295.2 million Chinese yuan (US$39.2 million; €27.5 million) in the six months ended June 2007.