According to reports, Alibaba co-founder and chairman Cai Chongxin said that after several years of industry competition, economic headwinds, regulatory environment and geopolitical tensions, Alibaba (hereinafter referred to as "Ali") has returned to China's top e-commerce track.。

Over the past few years, Ali has faced a series of challenges, and under the squeeze of a series of internal restructurings, IPO suspensions, low-price competition and emerging platforms, Ali's decline seems to have shaken many people's hearts.。

Despite this, Cai Chongxin said that with the company's restructuring and new management in place, Ali is "more confident" about becoming China's top e-commerce company.。"We didn't have confidence and felt competitive pressure before, but now we're back," he said.。

Repeated twists and turns, years of deep adversity

In March 2023, Alibaba announced a comprehensive reform of the group's business, splitting the company into six independent business groups, and plans to take the lead in listing Alibaba Cloud.。However, due to US chip export restrictions, Ali halted plans to spin off the cloud business in November.。In September, Zhang Yong, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud, suddenly resigned from his current position.。

That month, Cai Chongxin formally succeeded Zhang Yong as chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Group; at the same time, Wu Yongming was promoted to group CEO, chairman and CEO of Aliyun; three months later, Ali announced that Wu Yongming was also the CEO of the company's core business segment, Amoy Group.。

However, Ali's IPO setback goes far beyond this。In November 2020, Ant Financial's IPO was suddenly suspended by the Chinese authorities.。Subsequently, the Chinese government imposed a huge fine on Ali for alleged monopoly。In September 2023, Cainiao submitted its listing application to the HKEx and has so far also failed to list.。

And in recent years, the public's consumer psychology along with the emergence of new e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo slightly changed, more in favor of this platform on the inexpensive goods, and Pinduoduo also seized this momentum, with $192 billion in one fell swoop to replace Ali to seize the top of the market value, becoming the highest value of the U.S. stock market in the Chinese stocks, while Ali's valuation fell below $190 billion.。At the same time, live sales of tremolo are climbing。

In response to the much-watched suspension of Alibaba Cloud's IPO, Cai Chongxin pointed out that if investor sentiment is high, the IPO of the cloud computing business will be more meaningful, but market sentiment is weak, and conducting capital market transactions will not bring transparency to the potential value of the business.。Therefore, the company decided not to spin off the cloud business, but to focus on what synergies the cloud can bring to the core business.。

Comeback to focus on e-commerce AI track

Despite these setbacks, Ali is still planning the road to recovery。Cai Chongxin is confident about Ali's future, and he also expects that China's e-commerce penetration will exceed 40% in the next five years, a major leap that will redefine China's retail industry.。

However, "in the final analysis" depends on Ali's competitiveness and the service provided to customers, and these are the areas where the company wants to improve through restructuring.。

When asked about the success of Chinese e-commerce companies such as Temu, Shein and TikTok in the United States, Cai Chongxin said that these companies have high product quality, reasonable prices, and provide a "good consumer proposition."。For the international market, Ali will continue to observe and think about the next step, taking into account the characteristics of domestic manufacturing quality, reasonable price and great consumer value.。

He also pointed out that the United States is only part of the world, there are other markets to participate in, Ali has launched overseas business layout through AliExpress and Trendyol platform focusing on the Turkish market, and the Chinese and American governments have realized the potential of cooperation, or can ease the existing tensions, Ali needs to clarify how to deal with。

On the other hand, although Ali no longer plans to divest its cloud business, it still plans to do so.。According to Cai Chongxin's analysis, China's economy accounts for about 17% of the world's, while digital scale is equivalent to 30% of the world's, and the demand for cloud computing is huge.。He said: "This is a very, very good market for the development of cloud computing business.。As a result, companies will work to enhance AI capabilities and generate revenue from cloud computing businesses.。

According to him, Ali will continue to focus on e-commerce and cloud business, given that e-commerce provides the most abundant AI application scenarios (such as rapid creation of product catalogs for consumers, virtual fitting rooms, etc.), the company is increasing investment in related technologies, through more accurate demand matching, to further enhance the frequency of user purchases and orders.。Previously announced December quarterly results showed that orders on Taobao and Tmall platforms successfully achieved double-digit growth。

Still, to this day, Ali faces headwinds in restoring growth。The December quarter underperformed expectations, with net income down 69% year-over-year; and so far this year, Ali's U.S.-listed shares have been little changed, trading at about $76, but a far cry from the November 2020 share price of about $300.。

In response to the previous repeated increase in Ali shares, Cai Chongxin said, Ma Yun and he as Ali's largest individual shareholders, reflecting the firm confidence in the company.。And stressed that a strong management team will inject new vitality into the company and inject new confidence into employees。At present, Ali is committed to building such a team to promote the sustainable development of the company。