Alibaba: Prevailing Revamp Upon Jack Ma’s Return

Alibaba is set to aid China’s shaken economy with its recent restructuring. Previously, Alibaba went past a series of challenges facing the pandemic business curbs. Alibaba’s co-founder, Jack Ma, criticized the nation’s rigid and strict financial regulation of small entities. Ma’s criticism towards the government soon became a counter effect to his company. The anticipated Initial Public Offerings (IPO) of Ant Group, Alibaba’s sister company, were impeded. Subsequently, the country’s tech sector experienced a significant crackdown from the Chinese government towards the end of 2020. These procedures were taken to reduce the sector’s monopoly power amidst Xi Jinping’s reign. As a result, most tech companies struggled to make ends meet. Jack Ma fled abroad to avoid the fierce crackdown until recently appearing back in the Homeland. The clampdown hindered China’s economy, which resulted in easing regulation on tech companies. Alibaba first reacted to the situation by dividing itself into six units: domestic e-commerce, international e-commerce, cloud computing, local services, logistics, and media and entertainment. These measures sought to ease the government’s past concern about monopoly power. Following the news, Alibaba’s shares in New York and Hong Kong skyrocketed, aligned with investors’ hope to regain trust in the company. According to the Chief Economist of the Grow Investment Group, Hong Hao, it is believed that Alibaba’s restructuring was part of Beijing’s strategy to boost confidence in the private sector.