"Shadow" Ma Yun takes over Alibaba again.

Author | Zhang Xiaoling

After three years of retirement, Jack Ma returned to China from his comfortable European vineyards and private yachts, and the massive and calm Alibaba empire immediately stirred up a storm.

On June 20th, the storm swept over Zhang Yong. Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO Zhang Yong will step down on September 10th this year and move to Alibaba Cloud. To outsiders, this seems like a demotion or exile. And this is only four years since he was promoted to the highest position in Alibaba.

Such a huge change may have been hidden in Jack Ma's itinerary after his return to China.

Although retired, divested, and retired, Mr. Ma is still the absolute invisible king of the Alibaba empire. This return is the beginning of his retaking the Alibaba scepter.

Alibaba has also entered a new era of "shadow" Jack Ma.

Comeback

On March 27th, Jack Ma appeared in Hangzhou and rode in a Toyota Coaster with Zhang Yong. Later, he appeared at the K12 Cloud Valley School invested by Alibaba, causing a sensation.

Just one day later, Alibaba announced the "one split into six" and launched the largest organizational change in the company's history. Under the control of Alibaba Group, six business groups including Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, Taobao Tmall Business, Local Life, Cainiao, International Digital Business, and Big Entertainment will operate independently and go public.

This actually formed a decentralization of power to Zhang Yong. Later, in the list of business group boards of directors announced by Alibaba, Zhang Yong appeared only in Alibaba Cloud as the group chairman. Looking back now, this is obviously a foreshadowing for his move to Alibaba Cloud.

Before the 618 e-commerce war, Jack Ma appeared in Hangzhou again, convening a small-scale communication meeting of business leaders of the Taotian Group. CEO Dai Shan, CFO Li Bo, Cainiao Group CEO Wan Lin, and others attended. However, Zhang Yong was not present.

Then came Zhang Yong's resignation.

The successors to Zhang Yong as chairman and CEO are Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming, a "ballast stone" and a "secret weapon". It can be said that they are both Jack Ma's spokespersons.

As an Alibaba "permanent partner" on par with Jack Ma, Cai Chongxin took over the highest scepter of Alibaba. Jack Ma once said that among Sun Zhengyi, Yang Zhiyuan, Jin Yong, and Cai Chongxin, "if you have to choose one to be most grateful for, it is Cai Chongxin."

Wu Yongming, who became CEO, is Jack Ma's absolute confidant. Wu's nickname is Dongxie, and he is called Wu Ma within Alibaba. He was one of the two who started a business with Jack Ma and his wife in Unit 202, Building 16, Huapu Garden, Hangzhou. The other person is Sun Tongyu.

In addition, many former Alibaba employees who have resigned have also returned. Peng Lei, Wang Jian, Tong Wenhong and others have all held important positions in the six major businesses that have been split.

Of course, Zhang Yong is still a person trusted by Jack Ma. As the growth engine of the group's future business, Alibaba Cloud is also the business that is progressing fastest in the split and listing. Jack Ma handed it over to Zhang Yong. With this, "shadow" Jack Ma has regained the highest power at Alibaba. The "Xiaoyaozi era" of Alibaba has come to an end.

For Mr. Ma, this was a deliberate and decisive change. According to people close to Jack Ma, he was dissatisfied with Alibaba's performance in recent years and therefore led these personnel and structural adjustments.

Although Jack Ma has already announced his retirement and no longer holds any position in Alibaba or serves on the board of directors, the founder of China's largest e-commerce company still has absolute authority and influence over the company.

His series of actions since returning to China have also demonstrated the keen sense of a business giant, a high degree of insight into market trends, and a strong sense of crisis as an entrepreneur.

In fact, after a four-year absence, Jack Ma is now facing a different internet world. As he pointed out in an internal communication meeting at Taobao, the methodologies that Alibaba relied on for success in the past may no longer be applicable and should be quickly changed. He pointed out three directions: returning to Taobao, returning to users, and returning to the internet.

Returning to Taobao is the core. Over the past decade, Zhang Yong has attached great importance to consumption upgrading, and "Tmall Double Eleven" has occupied the minds of Alibaba customers, while Taobao seems to have been marginalized.

In the past three years, however, consumption downgrading has become a new social reality, and e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo and Douyin have emerged, and the myriad of small and medium-sized merchants that Taobao once prided itself on have been divided and eroded, and its advantages have gradually been lost.

According to a global investment research report by Goldman Sachs, the market share of Taobao and Tmall has dropped from around 66% in 2019 to around 44% in 2022, with the lost share mainly going to Douyin.

Caijing believes that the combined order GMV of Pinduoduo and Douyin e-commerce in 2022 has exceeded 50% of Alibaba's domestic e-commerce business. In the first three months of 2023, Pinduoduo's revenue has reached 62% of Alibaba's domestic e-commerce revenue.

It's not just Alibaba that's been hurt. JD.com has also encountered strong opponents. That's why they both made "low prices" the core and wooed small and medium-sized merchants during this year's 618 shopping festival.

In the battle report of Taotian, more than 2.56 million small and medium-sized merchants achieved a turnover of more than last year during the 618 shopping festival, and 1.18 million small and medium-sized merchants achieved a breakthrough of "10,000 yuan in turnover". Obviously, Jack Ma's route has already begun to be executed.

Future

Jack Ma and a group of Alibaba veterans' "comeback" is not surprising. In the business world in China and around the world, it has never been easy for founders to retire. Just as female leaders always emerge in times of crisis, founders always come back to save the company in times of life and death.

Once, from holding city yellow pages and making phone calls, Jack Ma moved small and medium-sized manufacturers and hundreds of millions of consumers onto the internet, "making it easy to do business in the world." Alibaba has also become the largest e-commerce platform in China, with last year's GMV still exceeding 8 trillion yuan.

Outside of e-commerce, Alibaba's business tentacles have penetrated into all aspects of economic life. From express delivery, takeout to film, shopping malls, home furnishings, media, Weibo, to payment and finance, it has also planted the seeds of risk. Four years ago, Ma's speech at the Bund Financial Forum put a pause on Ant Group's IPO; Alibaba also came under antitrust investigation and was fined 18.4 billion yuan for forcing merchants to choose between platforms.

After a long silence, Jack Ma returned and a new era for Alibaba began.

However, the landscape of China's internet industry is ever-changing and unpredictable, and the Alibaba empire is also facing numerous crises. Apart from its e-commerce business, most of Alibaba's new businesses are still in the red; its market value has fallen from a high of $900 billion to just over $200 billion.

This has forced both Ma Yun and Liu Qiangdong, who had already retired, to return to the front line; people have also realized that they never really left.

Ma Yun has appointed the core team of Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming, which is considered suitable for the new era of Alibaba, and "the future holding group will transform into an innovation incubator."

By returning to Taobao, Ma Yun seems to be rediscovering the essence of Alibaba as an internet company, rather than a "damn retailer" as described by Charlie Munger.

And under the "1+6+N" structure, e-commerce is only a part of Alibaba's business. The fragmentation, capitalization, and spin-off of the Alibaba ecosystem are accelerating. Alibaba Cloud plans to complete its spin-off and listing in the next 12 months, while Cainiao has been scheduled for a listing within 12-18 months.

If these plans proceed smoothly, the future Alibaba will become a huge holding group with several listed companies; the entire Alibaba ecosystem's market value may reach trillions of dollars.

Meanwhile, Amazon, the world's most valuable internet company, has a market value of over $1.28 trillion.

"From one Alibaba to a group of Alibabas, from many good generals to many entrepreneurs." This is Ma's dream and the future of Alibaba.

You may have thought that the business idol had already gone far away and retired completely; but unexpectedly, he has returned with even higher aspirations and is about to write another business legend.

Welcome back to the battlefield, Jack Ma.