An e-commerce giant is losing its lead, reports Raffaele Huang and Liza Lin of The Wall Street Journal. They write:
Chinese internet titan Alibaba (BABA) Group Holding once seemed invincible. Now, it is stuck in a slump.
The e-commerce giant was a major driver of China’s growing consumer economy as it pioneered online shopping in China. Over the years, it also expanded into cloud computing, physical supermarkets and digital entertainment.
Now, its grip on online retail is weakening. In recent months, the company lost a long-running chief executive, while a restructuring plan to revive Alibaba has quickly hit roadblocks. That came after Alibaba and Jack Ma, its co-founder, were slammed by Beijing’s regulatory crackdown that started three years ago.
After an explosive stock rise following its 2014 initial public offering, Alibaba shares lost most of those gains, now trading near its IPO price. […]
In late November, after PDD’s earnings came out, Alibaba employees marveled at their competitor’s growth on an internal forum, according to posts reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Co-founder Ma, who has generally kept a low profile since the crackdown, popped back to respond to such messages. “I am more convinced that Alibaba will change and adapt. All great companies are born in the winter,” he said on the forum, calling on Alibaba employees to provide constructive feedback and suggestions for innovation.
Read more here.
