Alibaba’s 3-year payback period

In Alibaba’s earnings call, it touted 3 years of payback and could improve that to 2.5 years or even 2 years.

That sounds strong.. but if you compare, that is nothing.

Even Luckin claims its franchisees have 1.5 – 2 years of payback periods.

And SpaceX said during recent 2q26 earnings that it has <1 year of payback period.

Nebius’s payback period is now 1 year and 10 months, down from 2-3 years, disclosed in 2q26 earnings.