watch
now
Chinese
e-commerce
giant
Alibaba
is
back
on
track
to
be
a
top
market
player
after
a
period
of
pressure,
co-founder
Joe
Tsai
told
CNBC’s
Emily
Tan
in
an
exclusive
interview
Friday.
Questions
about
Alibaba’s
future
have
mounted
after
a
series
of
internal
changes,
a
scrapped
cloud
computing
IPO
and
competition
for
its
core
e-commerce
business.
The
long-time
behemoth
in
China’s
online
shopping
world
has
in
recent
years
faced
greater
competition
as
cost-conscious
consumers
turn
to
lower-priced
goods
from
PDD
Holdings,
and
amid
the
rise
of
livestreaming
sales
on
Douyin,
China’s
version
of
TikTok
that’s
owned
by
ByteDance.
“Now
with
the
restructuring
and
with
the
new
management
in
place,
we
feel
a
lot
more
confident
in
placing
as
one
of
the
top
e-commerce
players
in
China,”
Tsai
said.
“Where
we
didn’t
feel
as
confident
as
before,
we
felt
the
competitive
pressure,
but
now
we’re
back.”
He
also
expects
the
penetration
of
e-commerce
in
China
to
exceed
40%
in
the
next
five
years,
up
significantly
from
the
current
30%
level.
Tsai
has
been
part
of
Alibaba
since
its
founding
in
1999.
He
became
chairman
of
Alibaba
in
September
as
part
of
a
leadership
reshuffle.
watch
now
Eddie
Wu
became
CEO
of
the
company
at
the
same
time,
replacing
Daniel
Zhang,
who
had
also
held
the
chairman
role.
In
December,
Wu
took
over
as
head
of
the
Taobao
and
Tmall
e-commerce
business
from
Trudy
Dai.
The
management
shakeup
followed
an
overhaul
of
Alibaba’s
business
last
year
that
split
the
company
into
six
business
groups,
with
an
eye
to
list
them
publicly
starting
with
the
cloud
unit.
However,
Alibaba
in
November
pulled
plans
for
a
cloud
IPO,
citing
U.S.
chip
export
curbs.
Zhang
was
originally
supposed
to
stay
on
as
head
of
the
cloud
business
but
abruptly
quit
the
company
in
September.
Tsai
said
a
cloud
IPO
would
have
made
more
sense
if
investor
sentiment
was
higher.
“Markets
haven’t
been
great,”
he
said.
As
for
an
IPO
of
Alibaba’s
Cainiao
logistics
business,
he
said
the
company
was
waiting
for
better
timing.
Cainiao
filed
for
a
public
offering
on
the
Hong
Kong
Stock
Exchange
in
September,
but
has
yet
to
list.
In
the
last
several
months,
Tsai
and
fellow
co-founder
Jack
Ma
have
bought
more
than
$200
million
worth
of
Alibaba
shares
between
them.
Alibaba
Alibaba’s
U.S.-traded
shares
have
barely
changed
for
the
year
so
far,
trading
at
around
$76
—
a
fraction
of
its
stock
price
of
about
$300
in
November
2020.
That
same
month,
the
company’s
fintech
affiliate
Ant
Group’s
IPO
was
abruptly
suspended
by
Chinese
authorities.
Beijing
later
fined
Alibaba
for
alleged
monopolistic
behavior.
Since
then,
the
company
has
faced
increased
competition
amid
slower
growth
in
China’s
economy.
PDD
Holdings,
which
owns
Pinduoduo
and
Temu,
temporarily
saw
its
market
capitalization
surge
past
Alibaba’s.
When
asked
about
the
success
of
China-affiliated
e-commerce
players
like
Temu,
Shein
and
TikTok
in
the
U.S.,
Tsai
said
the
companies
offered
“a
great
consumer
proposition”
due
to
“high
quality”
products
and
“reasonable
prices.”
“They’re
very
aggressive
doing
it
and
we’re
going
to
observe
and
figure
out
what
we
want
to
do,”
he
said,
noting
Alibaba
already
sells
overseas
through
AliExpress
and
Trendyol,
which
focuses
on
Turkey.
watch
now
As
for
U.S.-China
tensions,
Tsai
said
the
two
governments
have
realized
they
need
to
work
together
in
certain
areas
despite
fierce
competition,
something
Alibaba
would
have
to
learn
how
to
deal
with.
Although
Alibaba
no
longer
plans
to
spin
off
its
cloud
business,
the
company
remains
intent
on
building
up
its
artificial
intelligence
capabilities
and
making
money
from
cloud
computing.
E-commerce,
Tsai
said,
offers
“one
of
the
richest
use-case
scenarios,
or
brings
the
most
variety,
in
terms
of
use
cases
for
using
AI
applications.”
They
include
the
ability
to
quickly
create
product
catalogs
for
consumers,
as
well
as
virtual
dressing
rooms
for
clothes,
he
added.
