The Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma reemerges and penned a rare and lengthy memo to employees. In Jack Ma’s memo, he expressed support for restructuring efforts at the e-commerce titan. As Jack Ma reemerges, some saw that as a signal he’s ready to play an active role again after years out of the spotlight. Alibaba underwent a historic overhaul and sweeping management changes in a bid to return Alibaba, the Chinese technology giant to growth.
Jack Ma largely disappeared from public view after making a speech critical of Beijing regulators in late 2020. A massive share sale for financial firm Ant Group, which he also founded, subsequently got canceled.
Jack Ma reemerges with a memo
Alibaba founder Jack Ma on Wednesday praised Alibaba’s reorganization and change over its tumultuous past year, marking the billionaire’s second major public statement to employees in just a few months.
In the past year, Alibaba underwent a historic overhaul and sweeping management changes in a bid to return the Chinese technology giant to growth.
“Over the past year, amid external and internal doubt and pressures, I have witnessed the birth of a strong and courageous Alibaba team,” Ma wrote in an internal memo to employees.
Ma’s disappearance
Ma all but disappeared from public life at the end of 2020, after Chinese regulators pulled the plug on the massive listing of the founder’s financial affiliate Ant Group, sparking a crackdown on his empire.
Alibaba, whose business spans everything from e-commerce to cloud computing, has seen billions of dollars wiped off of its value in the past few years, thanks to tougher regulation from Beijing and rising competition from rivals like PDD and TiKTok owner ByteDance.
Alibaba’s overhaul
Last year, Alibaba underwent its biggest overhaul in its history, which split the company into six business groups in a bid to make each unit more agile.
This was accompanied by sweeping management changes. Daniel Zhang, longtime CEO of Alibaba Group, unexpectedly quit and then stepped down as CEO of the company’s cloud unit. Alibaba veterans Eddie Yongming Wu took over as CEO, while Joe Tsai became chairman in September.
Alibaba has since scrapped the initial public offerings of both its cloud division and Cainiao, its logistics unit.
Ma’s return a morale boost for Alibaba
Ma is reemerging at a time when Alibaba employees are likely in need of a morale boost. He praised both Tsai and Wu for their “future-oriented transformations.”
The Alibaba founder also said Alibaba needs to think what e-commerce looks like in three years’ time, especially since the arrival of artificial intelligence.
Alibaba stock update
Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares saw a jump of nearly 2% higher in morning trading Wednesday.