(NYSE: BABA) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), the parent company of Google, are two of the largest tech companies in the world. Alibaba is the largest e-commerce and cloud platform company in China, while Google owns the world's top online search engine, streaming video platform (YouTube), and mobile OS (Android). It also owns the world's third-largest cloud infrastructure platform.

Investors might look at those growth engines and assume Alibaba and Alphabet are both great long-term investments. But over the past five years, Alibaba's stock was cut in half as Alphabet's stock more than doubled. Let's see why Alibaba floundered as Alphabet flourished -- and if that trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

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Source Fool.com