Alibaba looks to ‘strategic innovations’ at 1688, Xianyu, DingTalk and Quark for growth, as cloud spin-off falls through

Alibaba has sharpened its focus on a wholesale marketplace, second-hand goods trading platform, office chat app, and search and cloud storage solution

The four businesses will operate as independent subsidiaries, as they undergo ‘strategic-level innovation’ to drive Alibaba’s AI and global ambitions

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The Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. Photo: AP Photo

Tracy Quin ShanghaiandAnn Caoin Shanghai

Published: 8:30pm, 17 Nov 2023Updated: 9:22pm, 17 Nov 2023

Alibaba Group Holding is banking on four new business pillars to drive growth in the coming decade, according to CEO Eddie Wu Yongming, as the Chinese e-commerce giant bolsters its strategy after shocking investors with its decision to shelve the spin-off of its cloud unit.

In his first conference call with analysts since new leadership took charge of the firm in September, Wu said Alibaba would focus on three key priorities in the next 10 years: technology-driven internet platform businesses, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technology businesses and global commerce networks.

As part of that shift, Wu highlighted the company’s first batch of businesses that would undergo “strategic-level innovation”. They include online wholesale marketplace 1688, second-hand goods trading platform Xianyu, office collaboration and app development tool DingTalk, and search and cloud storage product Quark.

“The strategic-level-innovation businesses that I have listed above will, in organisational terms, operate as independent subsidiaries and will not be constrained to their previous positioning within the group, enabling them to face the larger market with their own strategies,” Wu said on the call on Thursday.

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Alibaba, which is undergoing a sweeping restructuring to break its business empire into leaner units, announced after its latest quarterly results that it would no longer proceed with a full spin-off of Alibaba Cloud because of US export restrictions on advanced chips.

Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post, had previously said it planned to turn its cloud business – a promising growth area for the company – into an independent, publicly-listed entity at some point next year.