Jack Ma calls Alibaba staff to welcome change in morale-boosting letter

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Alibaba seems to have fallen behind its Chinese ecommerce peers as of late. Shares of the then-immovable titan even took a back seat to rival Pinduoduo parent PDD Holdings in December 2023.

Since then, Alibaba has made key changes to simplify its business structure and boost efficiency.

In a memo to staff written on the one-year anniversary of Alibaba’s restructuring, co-founder Jack Ma said that the company has taken “a surgical approach to cure the ailments of a large company.”

The Chinese tech giant recently shelved the financial debut of its logistics arm Cainiao in Hong Kong. Instead, Alibaba sought to purchase all remaining shares in the unit, aiming to boost synergies between Cainiao and its ecommerce business.

However, according to Ma, Alibaba must continue to prioritize customer experience rather than blindly chasing growth.

Ma also expressed his excitement about the advent of AI tech and its impact on the ecommerce industry, exclaiming that “everything is just getting started and we are right on time!”

The memo follows Joe Tsai, Ma’s co-founder, sharing similar sentiments in a podcast interview with Nikolai Tangen of Norges Bank Investment Management.

Tsai said in the interview that Alibaba had forgotten who its real customers were, a development that eventually affected its share price. The company’s stock has dropped 77% from its 2020 peak, losing US$332 billion in market value to date.

However, Tsai, along with Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu, has been leading a broader change within the company – which Ma praised in his letter.

See also: Tracking PDD’s Temu-fueled rise to surpass Alibaba in market value