Alibaba to Split into Six Businesses

Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology, Alibaba, announced on Tuesday that it will be splitting its business into six distinct entities. The six entities will have their own Chief Executive Officers and boards of directors.

“Business groups and companies will set up boards of directors, respectively”, Alibaba said in a statement. They will also be allowed to implement the CEO responsibility system under the leadership of the board of directors of each business group and business company.

Alibaba Group will move towards the management model of a holding company in an all-round way, “, it added. Out of the six new entities, five “will also have the flexibility to raise outside capital and potentially to seek its own IPO,” Alibaba said.

“This transformation will empower all our business to become more agile, enhance decision-making, and enable faster responses to market changes,” said Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang in a statement.

In 2020, Alibaba’s financial technology organization, Ant Group, was forced to withdraw a $37 billion initial public offering on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets after the intervention of Chinese regulators.

In 2021, Alibaba was fined $2.8 billion by China’s antitrust regulators. Tuesday’s announcement caused a 9% increase in Alibaba stock value in pre-market trading in the U.S. markets.

The Taobao Small Commerce Group will include the Taobao and Tmall online outlets. The Cloud Intelligence Group will be led by current Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang.

The Local Services Group will be led by You Yongfu, and will be in charge of food delivery under Alibaba The Global Digital Commerce Group will be led by Jiang Fan and will handle Alibaba’s international sales businesses.

Cainiao Smart Logistics currently operates as a separate entity, handling logistics for Alibaba, under CEO Wan Lin. The Digital Media and Entertainment Group will be led by Fan Luyuan and will handle Alibaba’s streaming services.