After successfully starting a business, many retire or change fields to continue to challenge themselves, and not many take the initiative to come back to fight fires. Wu Yongming, nine months ago, was in the former category, and as Ali started the restructuring drama, he became the latter.
On December 20, Alibaba announced the fourth major personnel adjustment this year, and Wu Yongming, the CEO of the group and Alibaba Cloud, has added the title of CEO of Taotian Group. Taotian and Alibaba Cloud, which were originally planned to develop more independently, have also become unprecedentedly unified after these four adjustments.
Alibaba's external narrative is to ensure the group's unified command and high-intensity investment in the two core businesses of e-commerce and cloud. An Ali source stressed to LatePost that "this is not a step backwards".
On March 28 this year, Alibaba initiated organizational changes and split into six major business groups and several business companies of "1+6+n", among which Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, and Dai Shan (nickname: Su Quan) as CEO of Taotian Group.
On May 18, Alibaba announced the list of directors of all business groups, as well as the listing and financing plans of some business groups, and Wu Yongming became the chairman of Taotian Group, and joined the board of directors of Local Life Group and International Digital Business Group.
On September 10, Daniel Zhang stepped down as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, as well as all positions of Alibaba Cloud, and received $1 billion to set up and take charge of technology**, and Wu Yongming became CEO of Alibaba Group and concurrently served as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud.
On December 20, Wu Yongming will also serve as the CEO of Taotian Group, and Dai Shan, CEO of Taotianyuan, will assist in the establishment of Alibaba Group's asset management company.
Wu Yongming's appointment came after Alibaba's market value was surpassed by Pinduoduo. According to data from the Bureau of Statistics, in the first nine months of this year, the national online retail sales of physical goods 108198 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 116%, outperforming Alibaba's Chinese e-commerce revenue. During the same period, Pinduoduo maintained double-digit high growth beyond expectations.
According to "Late latepost", Ma Yun believed at an internal meeting in May this year that the competitive environment of Tmall has reached a very severe point, and the multilateral platform effect of the Internet may exacerbate the speed of development.
An Ali source once told LatePost that Jack Ma's emphasis on "returning to the internet" may have been influenced by Charlie Munger's remarks – I was fascinated by their position in China's internet industry, but I didn't realise that they were still just a goddamn retailer."
Those who know Munger well will know that the late legendary investor never thought retailers should die. He has been a director of Costco since 1997 and has retained his holdings after Berkshire Hathaway liquidated its shares in 2020. "I love everything about Costco," Munger said last year, "and I'll never sell it."
It's just that doing retail well is simple and difficult, from Sears more than 100 years ago to Walmart 70 years ago, to Amazon 30 years ago, JD.com 20 years ago, and Pinduoduo 9 years ago. They reinvented their infrastructure, redefining people's expectations of goods and choices with the latest technology of the time, and stimulating consumption.
Sometimes they cater to changes in the consumption Xi of the whole society, and sometimes they accelerate the reshaping of consumption Xi. Consumers have always been there, and the companies or platforms that provide services have gone through cycles. Now, Walmart has a market capitalization of $410 billion and Costco is $300 billion. In 2018, Sears went bankrupt and collapsed.
If Taotian has more drastic reforms, Wu Yongming, who is trusted by founder Ma Yun, is one of the few options for Alibaba.
A person familiar with the matter said that after 2015, Wu Yongming would express key opinions and influence Jack Ma on many occasions within Alibaba, such as the organization department, partner meetings, and Fengqingyang classes.Dai Shan, who was replaced by Wu Yongming, will be in charge of the newly established asset management company of Alibaba Group. One investor who learned of the arrangement said, "Question Yahoo, Understand Yahoo, Become Yahoo," referring to the fact that Yahoo, which originally owned 15% of Alibaba, split the company into two in 2017, one for the business company and one for Altaba, which holds shares in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.
According to the position data disclosed by Alibaba in August this year, the group holds shares in overseas listed companies such as Best Group, Bilibili, Zhiwen Group, Weibo, Xpeng, 1STDIBS (antique ** retailer), Mariadb (cloud database company), 23andme (genetic testing company), and YouPerfect Corp.
Alibaba's annual report discloses investments in domestic companies including Shentong Express, Mango Supermedia, China Radio and Television Network, YTO Express, and, of course, its 33% stake in Ant. As of March 31, 2023, Alibaba held approximately RMB103.2 billion in equity in listed companies and RMB109.2 billion in investments in non-listed companies. (Gong**).