From Fortune:

China’s Alibaba pledged to strengthen its core e-commerce group after underwhelming Q4 2023 results. Revenue at Taobao and Tmall Group grew just 2%, reaching 29.07 billion yuan ($17.98 billion). CEO Eddie Wu emphasized the need for investment in price competitiveness and user experience, as Alibaba faces increased competition and a downturn in Chinese consumer spending.

New e-commerce entrants like Pinduoduo-owner PDD Holdings and TikTok-owner ByteDance pose significant risks to Alibaba, as evident in PDD’s 94% YoY growth compared to Alibaba’s 9% growth for the quarter ending in September 2023.

ByteDance is competing with Alibaba by expanding into live-streaming e-commerce, with expected total sales surpassing $800 billion by 2025. Alibaba’s 2023 revenue reached $130.1 billion. They’ve reshuffled senior management and discuss selling non-core assets like its InTime department store chain.

Alibaba walked back its restructuring plans announced early last year. Chairman Joe Tsai said they are “not in a hurry” to pursue IPOs for logistics service Cainiao and grocery chain Freshippo.

Q4 2023 quarterly revenue from Alibaba’s cloud computing division rose 3% YoY, reaching 28.06 billion yuan ($3.95 billion). Alibaba shares listed in HK are down 6.8% from the previous day’s close.



Read more: Alibaba in no ‘hurry’ to pursue IPOs, promises to ‘reignite’ e-commerce unit