On November 21, Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming issued an email to all employees announcing the establishment of the Alibaba e-commerce business group, appointing Jiang Fan to take charge, and report to Wu Yongming. The new e-commerce business group will fully integrate Taobao Tmall Group, the International Digital Commerce Group, and e-commerce businesses such as 1688 and Xianyu to form a business cluster covering the entire domestic and foreign industry chain.

The establishment of a new e-commerce business group is Wu Yongming's new thoughts and actions on how to make good use of both domestic and international resources in the e-commerce field in the future to form joint development efforts. This move highlights Alibaba's determination to invest in core e-commerce businesses. Through significant synergy, it can better support merchants to seize global market opportunities and achieve greater growth.

In September of last year, Wu Yongming became the CEO of Alibaba Group. Later, he clarified the strategic focus of “customer first, AI-driven”, made strategic trade-offs, focused on core business, and also served as CEO of Taotian Group and Cloud Intelligence Group to promote the rejuvenation of the management team and carry out drastic reforms in organizational formation and business strategy.

Over the past year, all business segments have maintained healthy growth. According to Alibaba's latest financial report released on November 15, the 2024 Double 11 Taobao and Tmall GMV grew strongly, with the number of buyers reaching a record high of 46 million; Alibaba Cloud's revenue growth continued to accelerate, and AI-related revenue grew by three digits for five consecutive quarters; International Digital Business Group's revenue grew strongly by 29%; and Local Life Group and Big Entertainment Group drastically narrowed losses.

“The times are progressing rapidly, and Alibaba, 25, must continue to innovate with an entrepreneurial mentality to carry out its mission of serving small and medium-sized enterprises and continue to create value for society.” Wu Yongming said in an email to all employees that e-commerce in China and around the world are entering a new era, and that global supply chain capabilities, contract fulfillment capabilities, and consumer service capabilities will determine the future competitive landscape. By integrating all e-commerce resources within the group, the Alibaba e-commerce business group will stimulate the ability accumulated over many years, serve domestic and global consumers well, and help more small and medium-sized enterprises simultaneously expand domestic and overseas markets.

Over the past year, Taobao, Tmall, and overseas e-commerce have gradually integrated and opened up. In July of this year, Taobao launched the “Big Apparel Global Free Shipping Program”, leading apparel merchants to take the lead in going overseas and investing 1 billion to turn Hong Kong, China into a free shipping zone. In September, Taobao also launched an English version in Malaysia and Singapore.

There are more than 10 million small and medium-sized enterprises behind Taobao and 1688. The rich and high-quality supply they represent is extremely competitive in the global market. The integration of domestic e-commerce and international e-commerce means that Ali's e-commerce business will move towards a wider incremental market.

With this round of adjustments, Alibaba's idea of focusing on core business development has become more clear. Wu Yongming said that e-commerce business and AI technology are the Group's most critical development direction. On the AI side, we will continue to increase investment, promote the AI-powered productivity revolution, improve AI infrastructure and supporting support systems, insist on open source and openness, continue to invest in AI product research and development in the ToB and ToC fields, and seize opportunities in the AI era.