On November 21st, Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming released a staff email announcing the establishment of the Alibaba E-commerce Business Group, appointing Jiang Fan to report to Wu Yongming. The new e-commerce business group will comprehensively integrate Taobao Tmall Group, International Digital Business Group, as well as e-commerce businesses such as 1688 and Xianyu, forming a business cluster covering the entire industry chain at home and abroad.
The establishment of a new e-commerce business group this time is a new thinking and action made by Wu Yongming, as the CEO of Alibaba Group, towards how to make good use of domestic and international resources to form a development synergy in the e-commerce field in the future. This move demonstrates Alibaba's determination to invest in its core e-commerce business, and through significant synergies, better supports merchants in capturing global market opportunities and achieving greater growth.
Last September, Wu Yongming was appointed as the CEO of Alibaba Group. Since then, he has clearly defined the strategic focus of "user first, AI driven", made strategic choices, focused on core business, and concurrently served as the CEO of Taotian Group and Cloud Intelligence Group, promoting the rejuvenation of the management team and making drastic reforms to the organizational structure and business strategy.
Over the past year, various business sectors have maintained healthy growth. The latest financial report released by Alibaba on November 15th showed strong growth in GMV on Taobao and Tmall during the 2024 Double 11 shopping festival, with a record high number of buyers and a total of 46 million 88VIP members; Alibaba Cloud's revenue growth continues to accelerate, with AI related revenue experiencing double-digit growth for five consecutive quarters; Strong revenue growth of 29% for international digital business groups; Local lifestyle groups and large cultural and entertainment groups have significantly narrowed their losses.
With the rapid progress of the times, 25-year-old Alibaba still needs to adopt an entrepreneurial attitude, constantly innovate, fulfill its mission of serving small and medium-sized enterprises, and continue to create value for society, "Wu Yongming said in an email to all staff. The e-commerce industry in China and around the world is entering a new era, and global supply chain capabilities, fulfillment capabilities, and consumer service capabilities will determine the future competitive landscape. The Alibaba e-commerce business group will integrate all e-commerce resources within the group, stimulate years of accumulated capabilities, serve domestic and global consumers well, and help more small and medium-sized enterprises expand their domestic and overseas markets simultaneously.
In the past year, Taobao, Tmall, and overseas e-commerce have gradually moved towards integration and integration. In July of this year, Taobao launched the "Global Free Shipping Plan for Big Clothing", leading clothing merchants to go global and investing 1 billion yuan to make Hong Kong, China a free shipping area. In September, Taobao also launched English versions in Malaysia and Singapore.
Behind Taobao and 1688 are over ten million small and medium-sized enterprises, representing a rich and high-quality supply that is highly competitive in the global market. The integration of domestic and international e-commerce means that Alibaba's e-commerce business will move towards a broader incremental market.
With this round of adjustment, Alibaba's development strategy focusing on core businesses has become clearer. Wu Yongming stated that e-commerce and AI technology are the most critical development directions for the group. In terms of AI, we will continue to increase investment, promote a productivity revolution driven by AI, improve AI infrastructure and supporting systems, adhere to open source and continuous investment in AI product research and development in the fields of toB and toC, and seize the opportunities of the AI era.