Alibaba, navigating sea change, reorients business towards bread-and-butter e-commerce and AI, pares down overhaul

By March 2023, Alibaba had lost three quarters of its value from the peak in October 2020, as the e-commerce giant, once seen as China’s answer to Amazon.com, faces questions on whether it can recapture its former glory while dealing with China’s economic slowdown, regulatory scrutiny and fierce competition from old and new rivals. The … Read more

ByteDance raises annual bonus for high-performing employees amid restructuring and latest TikTok crisis in US

While employees have started to receive their bonuses for the past year based on their performance review, those who were rated “M” or higher will be rewarded extra payment of between 5 per cent to 15 per cent of their original bonus, according to Hua Wei, head of human resources at ByteDance, in an internal … Read more

Alibaba’s logistics unit Cainiao to double year-end bonus for employees, in morale-boosting move after scrapped IPO

Hangzhou-based Cainiao will launch an “entrepreneurship incentive plan” that will double the bonus pool allocated for the financial year ending March 31, 2025, according to company chief executive Wan Lin in excerpts from an internal letter seen by the South China Morning Post. That means employees will receive their standard year-end bonus in April 2025 … Read more

Zulily IP Assets Put Up for Sale by Hilco

Whatever kind of phoenix-from-the-flame moment that’s left to Zulily, it’s coming soon.  Founded in 2010, the once-buzzy fashion darling was a leader in the flash sale phenomenon that took hold after the Great Recession, parlaying its blink-and-you-miss-it approach into an initial public offering and, in 2014, a market capitalization of $7 billion.  But that was … Read more

ByteDance CEO wants to whip employees into shape, as they lack a ‘sense of crisis’ amid fierce competition at home and abroad

The chief executive of ByteDance, owner of TikTok and its Chinese sibling Douyin, said the company lacks a sense of crisis, which has made the Chinese social media giant slow and inefficient in the face of fierce competition. That introspection was made by Liang Rubo – co-founder of ByteDance who took over as its chief … Read more

TikTok owner ByteDance allows employees to cash in stock options earlier under new payroll policy

ByteDance, owner of global short video hit TikTok and its Chinese sibling Douyin, has adjusted its payroll policy to allow employees to sell their stock options faster, as plans for an initial public offering (IPO) remain in limbo. Under the new rule, applicable to ByteDance’s 110,000 employees worldwide, workers will receive 20 per cent of … Read more

Alibaba reduces stake in GoGoX amid Hong Kong logistics services firm’s mounting losses, as it faces cutthroat competition on the mainland

Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, has cut its GoGoX stake four times over the past two months, slashing its equity holding to 8.89 per cent as of late December from 12.23 per cent in mid-2023, according to Hong Kong stock exchange records. Following those moves, the biggest shareholder of GoGoX remains billionaire … Read more

Jack Ma-backed fishery-and-agriculture company 1.8 Meters starts sale of seafood products via Alibaba’s Freshippo and Tmall

Dozens of orders had been placed for those two seafood products on Tmall as of Tuesday noon, which could be viewed by some as a lukewarm performance on the platform. Taobao and Tmall have more than 800 million monthly active users as of November. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Dozens of orders had … Read more