Meng Qian: Ma Yun is out of the mountain, Alis huge changes

Source: China News Weekly

Author: Meng Qian

618 The promotion has just ended, and Ali's change has continued from the organizational structure to No. 1.

On June 20, Ali issued a letter of members and announced that Zhang Yong would step down as chairman and CEO of the board of directors of Alibaba Holding Group on September 10 this year.Zhang Yong will focus on the development of Alibaba Cloud after leaving office and serve as the chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group.Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming in Ali's "Eighteen Luohan" took over the chairman and CEO of the board of directors.

On the previous day, according to LatePost, the founder of Ali, the founder of the company for many years, held a small -scale communication meeting with the executives last month, pointing out that Taobao Tmall's three major future futureDirection: Return to Taobao, return to users, return to the Internet, and emphasize that "Ali's past successful methodology may not be applicable, it should be changed quickly."

In the 24 years since the founding of Ali, each adjustment is attractive, and essentially to stimulate productivity and innovation.According to industry insiders, since the change of the "1+6+N" organization of Ali Group in March this year, Ali transferred to the Holding Group.In the competitive situation, this e -commerce giant will be transferred from "career" to "entrepreneurship".

However, where is the wind and waves, where will the giant wheel be driven?

Ma Yun out of the mountain

At the end of March this year, the topic of "Ma Yun has returned to China" rushed to the hot search. It is reported that on March 27, Ma Yun discussed the challenges and opportunities brought by the new round of technological changes in Yungu and the principals.

On March 28, the news of Ali organized transformation came.Zhang Yong issued a letter of all members to start the group's "1+6+N" organizational change.According to the plan, under the Alibaba Group, there will be six major business groups and many business companies such as Alibaba Cloud Smart, Taobao Tmall Commercial, Local Life, Cainiao, International Digital Commercial, and Entertainment.Business groups and business companies will set up board directors to implement the CEO responsibility system under the leadership of various business groups and business companies, and Alibaba Group will fully implement the management of holding companies.

In April, according to the official website of the University of Hong Kong, Ma Yun has been hired as an honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong. The hire period is three years.On May 1st, the University of Tokyo, Japan, released news that Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group as a guest professor of "Tokyo College".

At the same time, Ali's reforms are further deepened. Yunshen Smart Group will completely split from Alibaba Group to the listing independently. Cainiao and Hema launched the listing plan. Ali International Digital Commercial Group launched external financing.Establish a board of directors.

Just recently, when the first 618 major promotion was approaching the end of the epidemic, Ma Yun's appearance gradually became frequent.

In June, the news of Jack Ma's lectures at the University of Tokyo flowed out.It is reported that on the evening of June 12, Ma Yun presided over a special seminar on "innovation and entrepreneurship" launched by the Global Leadership Project (GLP) Promotion Office of Tokyo College and the University of Tokyo as a special seminar.Students from Japan, China, India, and Malaysia participated in the course.On the afternoon of June 17, the 2023 Alibaba Global Mathematics Contest started, and the photos of Jack Ma came to Hangzhou to watch the game were exposed.

On June 18, the promotion ended.According to media reports, Ma Yun, who was still in the state of retirement in late May, opened a small communication meeting with executives, and pointed out that Taotian Group would return to Taobao, return to users, and return to the Internet.It is reported that Ma Yun judged that it was Taobao instead of Tmall, and mentioned that Tao Tian should be further flattened in the organization.

Just yesterday, the personnel changes in Ali No. 1 are publicly public: with the consent of the board of directors of Alibaba Holdings Group, Zhang Yong will step down as chairman and CEO of the board of directors and CEO of Alibaba Holding Group on September 10 this year.Zhang Yong will be a chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group afterwards.At the same time, with the approval of the board of directors of Alibaba Holdings Group, Cai Chongxin, Executive Vice Chairman of the Group, will be the chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Holding Group; Wu Yongming is the CEO of Alibaba Holdings Group, and continues to be the chairman of the Taitian Group.

After entering Ali 16 years, Zhang Yong left the No. 1 of the professional manager, replaced by Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming of Ali's "Eighteen Luohan".EssenceIn fact, in May, when the six major businesses were split in May, Wu Yongming appeared in the list of senior management of Taitian Group, local life group and Ali International Digital Commercial Group as directors; Cai Chongxin was the director of the Taitian Group and Cainiao GroupIn addition, Dai Shan, Peng Lei and others also held multiple jobs.

Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the E -Morgeon Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the essence of promoting Ma Yun's re -mountains is the turning point facing Ali: On the one hand, the challenges and pressures facing e -commerce business mainly come from market saturation and intensified competition.Consumer demand upgrades and other aspects; on the other hand, Ali also needs to adjust its own strategy to adapt to the new market environment.

E -commerce has reached the crossroads

Jack Ma also felt the sense of crisis. At the Taotian Group's internal communication meeting, Tao Tian Group's current competition situation was very serious.He used Nokia and Kodak as an example, thinking that a company was benchmarked from the industry to death, and it was enough for half a year to one year, and the speed of the Internet industry may be faster.

Third-party platform Star Chart data shows that on May 31, 2023, 20: 00-24: 00, June 18, 2023, the cumulative sales of integrated e-commerce platforms and live broadcast platforms were 79.87 billion yuan (RMB, 149.1 billionSingapore), last year, this number was 695.9 billion yuan, and the previous year was 578.4 billion. The overall growth rate of the industry became stable.

Li Yongjian, a researcher at the Institute of Finance and Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China News Weekly that the growth trend of domestic e -commerce in the past two years has slowed down, lower than the world average.The 2019 China E -commerce Annual Development Report shows that in 2019, the growth rate of online retail sales showed a downward trend, which was lower than the global average.According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the online retail sales of physical goods in 2022 reached 1.196 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.2%year -on -year, accounting for 27.2%of the total retail sales of consumer goods.The global growth rate of regions and national growth rates has reached 20%.

In the war reports announced by various platforms, GMV has not been seen since Double Eleven last year.Instead, it is the growth data of some orders and some categories.From the perspective of data, the performance of live e -commerce platforms is significantly faster than the integrated e -commerce platform.This year's 618 comprehensive e -commerce platform sales reached 614.3 billion yuan. Last year, this number was 582.6 billion yuan.100 million yuan, the top three of Douyin, Dian Tao, and Kuaishou.

Jack Ma mentioned that Ali's past successful methodology may not be applicable and should be quickly changed.He pointed out three directions for the future development of Tao Tian Group: returning to Taobao, returning to users, and returning to the Internet.Ma Yun judged that the next time it was Taobao instead of Tmall. Ali e -commerce should "return to Taobao."

Since the beginning of this year, major e -commerce platforms have started to compete in prices, "10 billion subsidies", "9.9 special price" and price power have been frequently mentioned.Hong Yong pointed out that the background of Ma Yun's return to Taobao is that the low -cost era of the e -commerce industry has arrived.In recent years, the competition of e -commerce platforms has become increasingly fierce. In order to attract users, the platform has launched various promotional activities, and the price war has become increasingly fierce.As the founder of Taobao, Jack Ma's voice means that Taobao will re -have a strong leader that can lead Taobao to the market challenge.

Actually, noIt is only Ali. Since the beginning of this year, major e -commerce platforms have adjusted organizational structure and executive levels.

Liu Qiangdong moved to JD.com in November last year. According to public reports, almost all the presidents of JD Retail Group's business groups were adjusted.In the internal meeting, Liu Qiangdong criticized the executives, emphasizing that low prices are weapons, and will also be the only basic weapon in the future."Lost the low price advantage, all other so -called competitive advantages will be zero."In April of this year, JD.com ushered in the largest organizational adjustment of organizational structure in five years. Jingdong returned from the business group system to the business department system.In May, JD.com announced that Xu Lei stepped down as CEO, and former JD CFO Xu Ran took over the position of CEO.On the day of 618, Xu Ran appeared publicly.

Earlier, Pinduoduo also ushered in the third CEO Zhao Jiazhen in history, focusing on supply chain management and Chinese business operations.

Xing Xing, director of the Institute of Boxing Securities Research, pointed out that entrepreneurs should be more concerned about awareness and responsibility. The current national policy support and encourage private enterprises to develop. At the same timeThe market share is being seized, which constitutes a certain challenge for Ali.If Ali still adheres to the previous strategy, the situation may be more complicated, that is, the current Ali has reached the critical moment of "secondary entrepreneurship", and it is bound to take out the strength and courage of breaking the boat.

Where is the giant wheel?

In this letter of all members, Zhang Yong mentioned that the new business cluster of 1+6+N was basically formed.It will mainly undertake the role of innovation incubation.According to Ali, Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming have the corresponding vision, experience, influence, and appeal, which is the best choice to bear the above responsibilities.

Cui Lili, Executive Director of the Institute of E -commerce, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told China News Weekly that the Holdings Group should bear the management of subordinate enterprise groups from resources such as strategic directions and funds, which is related to the future development of the six major business segments.It is necessary to take into account the overall situation, the collaboration between the layout of each sector, and to do a good job of opening and innovation of the expansion of the soil to the expansion of individual needs.At present, the leaders in the new architecture are basically continuous entrepreneurs, and have a deep understanding of innovation, investment and business.In such changes, Ali will shift from "keeping industry" to 'entrepreneurial'.

In fact, taking Alibaba Cloud, as an example, also mentioned in the letter of all staff that Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group has completely split and is starting, and is in the most critical period of upward development.Development and continuously enhance Alibaba Cloud's industry competitiveness and global competitiveness.

Ali Cloud, Cainiao, Hema and other businesses have rumored rumors. After the reform of the reforms, in fact, the six major businesses and holding groups have brought new challenges.

Weng Yi, a senior researcher at the Digital Economic Think Tank, pointed out that "from the unity of the University to the seal system", the core is the negative profit and loss of the business.The separation of various business segments is now conducive to the expansion of various businesses, and the development of each business is inspected through the market.

Xing Xing mentioned that Ali's strategic adjustment is actually an organizational change, but how to ensure the synergy between business and avoiding internal competition, maintaining strategic unity, etc. are all Ali who will face the problem.He further pointed out that spin -off and listing can be said to be beneficial and disadvantaged: it is conducive to the parent company's more attention to the management of subsidiaries, and it is also conducive to improving the profitability of the subsidiary, expanding the scale of business, and then enhancing the performance of the performance of the parent company's performance and comprehensive governance;The disadvantages should not be ignored. After the spin -off of high -quality assets, whether the value of the parent company is still strong is still a severe challenge that the parent company needs to face.

Back to the basic market of Ali, Ali is still the e -commerce platform with the highest share and the number one in revenue scale in China.However, in terms of market share, Ali has previously occupied 80%of Chinese e -commerce market share. In the past two years, Ali's market share is about 50%; from the perspective of the capital market, Ali's market value a few years ago once exceeded 5000 more than 5000 a few years ago.100 million US dollars, now only half of the time.

Cui Lili told China News Weekly that from the basic market of Ali, the e -commerce business has been impacted by emerging e -commerce, the growth of the cloud business line is facing a test, and the entire economic environment is also changing."For Ali, it is not enough to do what you original. It will inevitably face changes in the end market, the requirements of the regulatory environment, and the consequences of path dependencies."

In the 618th report of this year, Ali emphasized the turnover of small and medium -sized merchants.This is consistent with Ali's intention to return to Taobao, and returning to Taobao means returning to small and medium businesses.Ten years ago, Taobao and Tmall were born in the scale of differentials and merchants. Tmall once became Ali's big signboard.Now that "the social and economic background has changed", Cui Lili believes that after the mainstream people of consumption have changed, the business focus will be returned to the "universal treasure".

She emphasized that it is small and medium -sized merchants that constitute economic background and represent the vitality of the entire social. There may be another real opportunity to come next, perhaps like the golden age from 2003 to 2008.