Jack Ma's Alibaba briefly loses China e-commerce crown to rival PDD, marks shift in industry

livemint.com:

stock positions occurred during Thursday's (November 30) trading session, where Alibaba's market value slipped below that of PDD. This is a significant turn for an industry Alibaba once dominated for over a decade. During Hong Kong intraday trading, Alibaba experienced a 1.4 percent decline, causing its market value to briefly fall to around $187 billion, momentarily placing it beneath US-listed PDD Holding's valuation of $188.3 billion, Bloomberg reported.

But the Jack Ma co-founded e-commerce giant managed to rally later in the day, closing slightly higher than PDD's overnight market capitalisation. The surprising shift signifies the challenging times Alibaba has been facing since Beijing's 2020 crackdown on the tech sector, impacting Alibaba's trajectory significantly. Further, the emergence of disruptors such as PDD and ByteDance Ltd., in the social media and e-commerce landscapes, has added to Alibaba's challenges.

In a recent internal memo, Ma urged the company's massive workforce to recalibrate and regain lost momentum. “Every great company is born in the winter. The people willing to reform for the future, and the organizations willing to pay any price and sacrifice, are the ones that are truly respected," Ma wrote in an internal forum.

Ma also praised rival PDD for "decision-making, execution, and efforts of the past years". The co-founder has been on the low since government action and it is yet unclear if his public address was approved. However, the billionaire's unusual intervention highlights the severity of the situation and the company's need to adapt swiftly to the evolving market dynamics.