The US IPO of China’s e-retail giant Alibaba ‘ set to be the largest in history – is likely to avoid the fate that saw Facebook lose half its stock price in its first four months as a publicly traded company. A key reason for that crash was the US company’s self-confessed lack of confidence about its mobile monetization strategy. By contrast, Alibaba has a strong mobile presence, with plans to expand its offerings in that area, and a clear idea of how to turn all that into revenue. This is partly because, as Amazon knows, mobile access can drive increased shopping, whereas it has the opposite effect on Facebook’s main revenue stream, advertising. Alibaba’s current model of high-volume low-margin…