Alibaba is out of time: It can’t be done without Jack Ma, it is difficult for the heir to restore its heyday

The Nikkei Asian Review describes founder Jack Ma as an inspirational but also impulsive person. Ironically, the Alibaba empire could not be successful without this talented billionaire.

That is why Joe Tsai – Vice President of Alibaba has always had to try, and often fail, in keeping Jack Ma focused on steering the important directions of the empire, avoiding the case of “falling off the car”.

Then what Joe Tsai was worried about happened when Jack Ma’s curse in 2020 made this empire upset the Beijing government, starting a series of days to rectify the entire technology industry as well as his hiding place. this billionaire.

Worse, the US-China tensions caused Alibaba’s plan to go to the US to fall apart, while having to deal with the troubles since Jack Ma’s scandal caused the group to be surpassed by a series of rivals in many places. face.

When Goldman Sachs first invested in Alibaba, it was Joe Tsai who made a great contribution to this cooperation, setting the stage for the US corporation to advance. Now Jack Ma once again trusts his empire to Joe Tsai when the total capitalization of the business has plummeted from the peak of $ 850 billion in October 2020.

According to the official announcement, Joe Tsai will become Chairman of Alibaba from September 2023, replacing Daniel Zhang, who has been running the group since Jack Ma “retired”.

However, according to Nikkei, the favorable factors contributing to Alibaba’s growth have disappeared and Jack Ma’s heir will be difficult to bring back the old golden age to this empire.

Heir

The Nikkei newspaper reported that Joe Tsai’s efforts to advance in the US were no longer appreciated when US-China relations were tense. Jack Ma’s heir himself also has a more pro-Western life than in China.

Born in Taiwan, attended high school in the US before graduating with a law degree from Yale University, Joe Tsai currently has Canadian citizenship but lives in New York in a luxury apartment complex. The Tsai family themselves also have their own investment fund called Blue Pool Capital, while the Jack Ma heiress spends more time on projects in the US than in China or Hong Kong.

With such a background, it is not difficult to understand that Tsai is an active supporter of Alibaba America, becoming the most ideal person to lead this direction of the Jack Ma empire. But when the tension between the two countries took place, the above efforts became futile when Joe Tsai was in the middle of a crossroads, either protecting Alibaba from the perspective of the Beijing government or pleasing American investors.

Worse, having a life that is too much involved in the US and the West makes Joe Tsai unpopular in the eyes of the Beijing government and this will be a huge test for heir Jack Ma in pleasing the Chinese government. country to be able to continue to develop.

According to Nikkei, Alibaba’s current situation is only gray, without any hope. China’s decision to stop the initial public offering (IPO) of Alibaba’s Ant Group at the last minute in 2020 was thought to be a response to Jack Ma’s words earlier. But some experts believe that this application holds nearly 75% of the online payment market share and hundreds of billions of dollars in deposits from households outside the control of the state is the main reason.

Many policymakers once considered Ant Group to be too risky a move to let the IPO and be out of the control of the government. Both Alibaba’s rivals and lawmakers believe that the Jack Ma empire has become too monopolistic and too large, becoming a risk of instability as well as a threat to the innovation ability of the entire technology industry.

This is the reason why Alibaba finally had to split into 6 independent subsidiaries, making Joe Tsai’s leadership position weaker than ever.

Although Alibaba’s cloud computing business is said to still have potential from Amazon’s lessons, and the logistics business also attracts investors, the Nikkei newspaper said that Jack Ma’s empire is over.

A series of Alibaba’s rivals have far surpassed this technology group in many areas when Jack Ma and the leadership are still busy with investigations and corrections from the Beijing government.

The Baidu brand has successfully convinced the market that Ernie Bot is the most advanced artificial intelligence product available today. PDD, with the help of Tencent, one of Alibaba’s main competitors, is thriving in e-commerce with Temu’s success in the US.

Then Bytedance’s Douyin also approached this e-commerce market with his influence, causing Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall to erode market share.

In the end, Nikkei concludes that while Jack Ma has safely retired as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, Joe Tsai is having to deal with the troubles left by the founder.

With too many competitors encroaching or surpassing in key areas, along with the tense US-China relationship and the correction from the Beijing government, Jack Ma’s heir is said to be difficult to bring to the world. Alibaba empire regains its former glory.

*Source: Nikkei Asian Review