On September 10th, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Alibaba's establishment, Jack Ma posted on Alibaba's intranet, saying, "Alibaba is Alibaba because we have an idealistic spirit. We believe in the future, we believe in the market, and we believe even more that only a kind company that creates real value for society can persist and complete the 102 year journey
Facing the future, Ma Yun also directly mentioned that the current Internet AI technology is surging, the competition in various industries is fierce, and many Alibaba businesses are facing challenges.
No company can always maintain its first place in any field, and only competition can make itself stronger and the industry healthier. Moreover, Alibaba has never been a protected company. We must always remind ourselves not to lose ourselves under the pressure of competition and the situation
On August 30th, Alibaba ended its three-year rectification period. In response to this announcement, Alibaba stated, "This is a new starting point for development." Alibaba took a big turn for three years and has finally completed the turnaround.
In the past year, retired Ma Yun gradually became active in the front office. He led the biggest organizational structure change in Alibaba's history, pointed out the development direction of core domestic e-commerce business - returning to Taobao, returning to users, returning to the Internet, and appeared on the company's change nodes on time to boost morale.
In November last year, Pinduoduo's market value surpassed Alibaba for the first time. Jack Ma replied on the internal network, "Alibaba will change, Alibaba will change." In his opinion, all great companies are born in winter, and the era of AI e-commerce has just begun. Alibaba still has opportunities.
In April of this year, on the one-year anniversary of Alibaba's restructuring, Jack Ma sent a letter of over a thousand words to all employees, stating that "we must acknowledge and correct yesterday's problems, and more importantly, face future reforms. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time in five years that retired Jack Ma has shared in length his thoughts on the company's reform, innovation, and future prospects.
In the past two years, the market competition environment faced by Ali has become more complex. With the pursuit of Pinduoduo, Tiktok and other latecomers, the position of Ali's first e-commerce brother has begun to shake.
According to a report by Goldman Sachs, as early as 2022, the market share of Taobao and Tmall had already dropped to around 44%, a significant decrease of 22 percentage points from 66% in 2019.
In addition, the growth rate of Alibaba's domestic e-commerce is gradually slowing down. The latest financial report shows that the adjusted EBITA of Taobao Group in the second quarter was 48.81 billion yuan, a decrease of 1% compared to the same period in 2023. Although the GMV growth rate of the platform is still acceptable, Taotian's customer management revenue only increased by 1% year-on-year in this quarter.
Alibaba has to focus on more imaginative overseas businesses and cloud computing. In the cross-border e-commerce field with significant growth potential, Alibaba and Pinduoduo have also engaged in close combat, spreading the flames of war to Southeast Asia, Europe, and other countries. The two sides have launched a new round of competition in terms of operational models, resources, and logistics.
Faced with fierce battles across multiple business sectors, Alibaba's market defense battle is still ongoing, and Jack Ma finds it difficult to take a break.
(Xu Xiaoqian, Time Financial Reporter, Comprehensive Pengbai News, Xiaoxiang Morning Post)