On December 20, 2023, Alibaba announced a new round of structural adjustments, following the tradition of annual major adjustments after the Double 11 shopping festival. Unlike previous years, Alibaba has been adjusting in the upcoming year 2023.
Alibaba announced that Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group and Chairman of Taotian Group, will also serve as CEO of Taotian Group. A reporter from China Business Daily confirmed to Alibaba that Wu Yongming will concurrently serve as CEO of Alibaba Group, Taotian Group, and Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group. Alibaba stated that this move will help lead the transformation of Taotian through technological innovation, ensuring that the group focuses on core strategic e-commerce and cloud business, forming a unified command and high-intensity continuous investment.
On that day, Alibaba Group Chairman Cai Chongxin announced the appointment through a letter to all members. He wrote in the letter, "A brand new era requires a new strategic and organizational system transformation. Facing the past, facing the future, and changing oneself, I believe that Alibaba, which has undergone this round of transformation, will complete its transformation."
In Cai Chongxin's letter to all employees, he also revealed the latest whereabouts of Dai Shan, former CEO of Taotian Group, who will assist the group in establishing an Alibaba Group asset management company.
Observers close to Alibaba believe that although Alibaba has been undergoing adjustments over the past year, the adjustments will continue. From the current situation where Wu Yongming serves as both CEO and CEO, it is highly likely that after the transition period, the power will be delegated to the "young people" who are rushing to the front line of the business.
However, in the view of internet business analyst Hao Zhiwei, this move also means that Alibaba's major fundamental adjustment has taken shape. 2023 is a year of stability for Taotian Group. At present, the fight against Tiktok is over, but the fight against Pinduoduo is far from over.
What remains unchanged is "change"
In response to Alibaba's values of "the only constant is change", Alibaba has been constantly changing in 2023.
In March 2023, Zhang Yong, former Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, initiated Alibaba's most important organizational restructuring in 24 years. "1+6+N" organizational change, splitting the group into six major business groups and multiple business companies. Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming officially took over as the Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group in September, while Zhang Yong stepped down from his positions as Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud.
However, this transformation seems to be continuing. With the departure of Zhang Yong, who initiated the adjustment, founder Jack Ma began to pay more attention to the company's business; At a recent financial report meeting, Wu Yongming, who took over as CEO of Alibaba Group, announced that he would no longer push for a complete spin off of Cloud Intelligence Group and would launch the first batch of strategic innovation businesses, the "Alibaba Four Dragons": 1688, Xianyu, DingTalk, and Quark.
Since taking over, Wu Yongming has established two strategic priorities: "user first, AI driven", and carried out reforms to rejuvenate the management team. In November, at Alibaba's quarterly performance conference call, Wu Yongming first disclosed a new strategic plan to the outside world, clarifying Alibaba's important priorities for the next decade into three directions: technology driven internet platform business, AI driven technology business, and globalized business network.
Alibaba believes that after several months of change, Alibaba's new strategic priorities and development path have been clearly presented. With Wu Yongming's dual focus on Taotian and Alibaba Cloud, the formation of Alibaba's focus on strategic core business development has been basically formed. Alibaba believes that this will help to lead Taotian's transformation with technological innovation, ensuring the group's unified command and high-intensity continuous investment in the two strategic focuses of e-commerce and cloud.
However, the reporter noticed that while Wu Yongming also serves as the CEO of Taotian Group, there has been no rotation or adjustment of Taotian Group's internal business lines and related personnel. In Hao Zhiwei's view, Wu Yongming, who also serves as the CEO of Taotian, will focus more on a unified strategic direction in the short term, rather than personnel deployment for Taotian Group executives who are active on the front line of the business.
Let "young people" participate?
Although Alibaba has stated that the focus of this round of adjustment is to ensure unified command and high-intensity investment, there are still some active signals behind Wu Yongming's appointment.
Firstly, it is "part-time". The Alibaba observers mentioned above believe that Wu Yongming holds three positions alone, especially in Alibaba Cloud and Taotian Group, where he plays more of a part-time role. Taking the "2023 Yunqi Conference" as an example, Wu Yongming went to the scene but did not give a speech. Alibaba Cloud and Taotian both need more business savvy people to rush to the front line, and Wu Yongming will be responsible for more strategic unity. At the appropriate time, a new CEO will take over from Wu Yongming.
Secondly, Dai Shan's departure further sends a positive signal to encourage young people to participate. Cai Chongxin clearly stated in the letter to all staff, "Next, we will fully utilize a young management team that has been trained and emerged at the grassroots level, creating an innovative environment for young people."
As one of the "Eighteen Arhat" of Alibaba, Dai Shan returned to Taobao and Tmall at that time, and had high hopes. After the "Double 11" in 2021, Dai Shan and Jiang Fan were respectively responsible for the newly established "China Digital Commerce" and "Overseas Digital Commerce" sectors in terms of structural adjustments.
As the first hot topic after taking office, Dai Shan announced the integration of Taobao and Tmall, and the integration of Taobao and Tmall backends to form a unified platform mechanism. However, according to the reporter's understanding, there is considerable controversy within Alibaba regarding this decision. Some insiders close to Alibaba believe that although Taobao and Tmall belong to the same e-commerce business, their genes and development methods are different, and they are not optimistic about the merger and development.
One year later, Taobao and Tmall adjusted again, dividing one into three. According to the adjustment at that time, the development of the industry focused on "richness", with main businesses including Taobao clothing, small diamond industry (trendy toys, pets, sports outdoor, jewelry, etc.), Taobao, 1688, etc., led by Wang Hai, the former head of Taobao and senior vice president (flower name: Qigong); Industry Development Department 2 focuses on "branding", with main businesses including Tmall Clothing, Fast moving Consumer Goods, Consumer Electronics, Mobile Tmall, Tmall International, etc., led by Liu Peng (alias: Aowen), former head of Tmall International and President of B2C Retail Business Group; The three departments of industry development focus on "high frequency", including Tmall Supermarket, Taocai Cai, Taoxianda, Food Fresh, and other businesses, which are led by Liu Yiman (flower name: Yiman), former head and vice president of Tmall Supermarket.
There are voices within the company that believe that the merger and spin off of Taobao and Tmall have to some extent missed the best opportunity to retaliate against Pinduoduo. As a veteran entrepreneur, Dai Shan is best at coordinating resources. In the increasingly fierce competition of e-commerce, young people are needed to stay on the front line of the business and charge forward. This is also the fundamental reason why Alibaba has always emphasized the use of young management teams.
Compared to its aggressive competitors, Alibaba needs to be faster and more agile. During Dai Shan's leadership of Taotian Group, he proposed three major strategies: "user first, technology driven, and ecological prosperity", emphasizing content and putting improving user experience at the forefront. However, the above-mentioned individuals stated that although many improvements and technological upgrades have been made in the user experience, it is clearly not fast enough and not effective enough.
As the market value of Pinduoduo approached Alibaba's eve, Jack Ma replied on the intranet that "Alibaba will change, Alibaba will change". Now, it seems that it once again confirms Alibaba's famous saying "the only thing that remains unchanged is change.".