Jack Ma steps into ‘mistakes’ brouhaha to boost Alibaba’s morale, urges staff to embrace change and prepare for AI to upend e-commerce

Alibaba Group Holding has fundamentally changed its corporate culture to put customers first in its adaptation of technology, its co-founder Jack Ma wrote, as he stepped into a social media hubbub over the hubris that caused what was once the world’s largest e-commerce platform to lose ground to competitors. “We hacked away at the big-company … Read more

Alibaba connects Taobao and 1688 to tap new users as fierce e-commerce competition ratchets higher

Alibaba Group Holding is integrating the services of its online wholesale marketplace 1688 with its flagship consumer shopping platform Taobao, as the e-commerce giant continues to consolidate assets amid internal restructuring and rising competition. Taobao has recently featured three online stores under the 1688 name as it pushes to win over new users, according to … Read more

PDD’s Colin Huang surpasses Tencent, ByteDance founders as China’s richest tech billionaire after Pinduoduo outgrows e-commerce rivals

Colin Huang, the founder of PDD Holdings, has become China’s richest technology entrepreneur after a surge in the value of its US-listed shares, allowing him to surpass the nation’s more illustrious tycoons Pony Ma Huateng of Tencent Holdings and Zhang Yiming of Bytedance. The 44-year-old grew his wealth by 71 per cent to 385 billion … Read more

AI, cross-border e-commerce are bright spots for Chinese internet firms in 2024, UBS says

Chinese internet firms can look to chase growth through international markets and artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024, according to UBS. China’s e-commerce platforms, facing intense domestic competition with new rivals and short-video app operators, are ramping up overseas expansion, Kenneth Fong, head of China internet research at the Swiss investment bank, said in a briefing … Read more

ByteDance’s Douyin makes instant refunds mandatory, following PDD, Taobao and JD.com amid fierce e-commerce competition

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok that is betting big on e-commerce, has made its “express refund” policy mandatory, forcing merchants to immediately return money to consumers upon request to compete with similar offerings on Taobao and Pinduoduo. The platform operated by Beijing-based ByteDance, which added a shopping channel in 2019, allows users to get … Read more

Alibaba promotes millennials to key e-commerce leadership roles as it repositions to fend off rivals

Alibaba Group Holding is pushing millennials, typically defined as those born in the early 1980s to mid-1990s, to take key roles in the country’s largest online market, as the Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant repositions itself to fend off fierce competition from rivals such as PDD Holdings. The company’s Taobao and Tmall Group has promoted six young … Read more

China’s Big Tech market cap rankings see shake up as NetEase overtakes Meituan for No 4 spot

China’s Big Tech landscape continues to undergo seismic shifts, with video gaming and news portal NetEase overtaking food delivery giant Meituan as the country’s fourth most valuable listed technology company, after Tencent Holdings, PDD Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding. NetEase’s market cap stood at HK$563.2 billion (US$72.1 billion) in Hong Kong on Thursday, compared with … Read more

Amazon doubles down on China e-commerce strategy as rivals Shein, Temu gain traction

American e-commerce leader Amazon.com has introduced a slew of initiatives as part of a renewed strategy to help Chinese merchants sell abroad, at a time when China-founded rivals like Shein and Temu are gaining traction. The moves include an innovation centre in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen, the first in the Asia-Pacific region, that … Read more