By
Darya Rudz
November 1st, 2023
Alibaba also announced the emergence of its current deputy chief financial officer, Toby Xu, as the new Chief Financial Officer who will be replacing Maggie Wu from April 2022.
The stock of Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (HKG: 9988) has taken a nosedive even as the firm announced a massive restructure to its e-commerce business in a bid to foster more inclusive growth. Per a Reuters report, the re-organization sees the company carve out two distinct units including international digital commerce and China digital commerce.
The International digital commerce will be headed by one of the company’s veterans, Jiang Fan, who had been in charge of Alibaba’s main Chinese retail marketplaces. The international digital commerce unit will include AliExpress, a vital subsidiary that services areas such as Europe and South America. This global unit will also include its Southeast Asian e-commerce outfit Lazada and Alibaba.com, both of which are more focused on selling to overseas business customers.
This international business unit is in line with the globalization trend that most e-commerce businesses are suing for. Globalization is particularly at the forefront of Alibaba’s agenda as the firm has continued to maintain this drive in order to compete favorably with other major competitors.
Globalization “helps Alibaba to get new traffic volume externally (and) seek new growth potential while China has been increasing supervision,” said Hong Kong-based Guotai Junan analyst Danny Law.
The China Digital Commerce unit will be headed by Trudy Dai, an Alibaba veteran that has been in charge of a number of the company’s platforms in the past. This local unit will include Tmall, and Taobao, two major marketplaces that are central to the company’s fortune. While the Tmall branch caters to established merchants, the Taobao unit welcomes all kinds of merchants on its platform.
The Chinese entity will also be in charge of all retail outlets including Taocaicai, and Lingshoutong amongst others.
Alibaba Stock and the Ascension of New CFO
The company also announced the emergence of its current deputy chief financial officer, Toby Xu, as the new Chief Financial Officer who will be replacing Maggie Wu from April 2022. The path to climax in the company has showcased the preference for in-house personnel, a move that breeds loyalty and commitment to the firm’s growth visions.
Xu joined Alibaba about three years ago from Big 4 auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and has been a key part of the company’s growth. Despite the positivity surrounding the e-commerce giants with respect to its laid out growth plans and the new leadership overhaul, the company’s shares are underperforming in the market today.
Alibaba stock plunged 5.61% in Hong Kong and traded at HKD 112.70 per share. In reality, investors have been weighing in on the impact of the current COVID-19 Omicron variant on the globalization efforts of the company. The incessant crackdowns from regulators also remain a crucial factor that is dragging down the stock growth of the Jack Ma-founded company.
Based on the reality of the growing competition and scrutiny the company is facing, it tapered down its forecast for the annual revenue growth and the current outlook is the poorest since 2014, Reuters reports.