Alibaba’s two-pronged approach to reversing fortunes

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During his visit to Vietnam in 2017, Jack Ma urged young local students to learn from their mistakes.

“I heard there are some books about me in Vietnam that are very popular,” he said. “In the future, I want to write a book about myself; something like Alibaba’s 1001 Mistakes.”

This, of course, was years before Ma’s October 2020 speech in Shanghai, where he publicly criticized Chinese regulators for hindering financial innovation.

Ma’s mistake was as costly as it could get. It ignited the collapse of Ant Group’s listing and eventually China’s long-drawn-out crackdown on its tech darlings.

In late February, Alibaba reported its worst quarterly revenue growth since the firm’s market debut in 2014. Alibaba’s stock is currently trading at its lowest level since 2016.

The Chinese tech giant has been walking a tightrope – managing the tech climate and heightened competition amid an economic slowdown at home, while scouting for new growth opportunities abroad.

This week, we have two big stories that dive deep into its recovery efforts on both fronts.

Our contributing writer from China, Ben Jiang, analyzes why Alibaba has had to dip its toes in direct retailing – a business model that Ma once reportedly ridiculed. Meanwhile, my colleague, Melissa Goh, writes about how Alibaba is plotting its big international push: taking its Southeast Asian ecommerce arm, Lazada, to Europe.

Our Hot Take examines how ecommerce players and brands can tap into blockchain to better reward their loyal customers.

Finally, our May 1 holiday has arrived. Have a good break and happy shopping!

– Huong

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