"Post-85" Generation Takes Control of Alibaba

Author | Liu Baodan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Following last year's unprecedented "one split into six" restructuring, Alibaba's core e-commerce business is undergoing significant adjustments once again.

On November 21, Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu sent an email to all employees announcing the establishment of the Alibaba E-commerce Business Group, appointing Jiang Fan to lead it, reporting directly to Eddie Wu. The new e-commerce business group will fully integrate Taobao Tmall Group, International Digital Commerce Group, as well as 1688, Xianyu, and other e-commerce operations, forming a business cluster that covers the entire domestic and international industry chain.

After all the twists and turns, Alibaba has completely entrusted its core e-commerce to this "Alibaba prince." Jiang Fan, born in the 1980s, was appointed after Eddie Wu proposed the goal of a younger management team. At the end of last year, he replaced the core management of Taobao Tmall with a lineup of "young talents," which also means that Alibaba is fully handing e-commerce over to the younger generation.

Bringing domestic and international e-commerce together as one is a recognition of Jiang Fan's capabilities and an expectation for him. Alibaba is also entering an e-commerce era that belongs to Jiang Fan.

The domestic e-commerce industry is undergoing a major reshuffle, coupled with the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, which presents more challenges for the e-commerce sector. In this context, Jiang Fan taking full control of e-commerce allows Eddie Wu to better focus on AI, which is a wise move.

After this round of integration, Alibaba's domestic and international e-commerce operations will work together to tackle the challenges posed by Pinduoduo.

From Trudy Dai to Eddie Wu, and now to Jiang Fan, after more than a year of intense turbulence and personnel changes, whether Alibaba's e-commerce can truly reverse the competitive landscape and secure a place globally remains to be seen. Jiang Fan must shoulder this heavy responsibility and lead Alibaba e-commerce in this offensive and defensive battle.

Return

Jiang Fan's return had long been anticipated.

More than a year ago, there were rumors within Taobao Tmall that CEO Trudy Dai would be replaced, and most people speculated that Jiang Fan, who was in charge of international business, would take over. However, unexpectedly, Eddie Wu took over as CEO of Taobao Tmall Group, holding three core positions: CEO of Alibaba Group, CEO of Alibaba Cloud, and CEO of Taobao Tmall Group.

In hindsight, Eddie Wu's takeover of Taobao Tmall was merely a transitional phase, and this position ultimately returned to Jiang Fan.

In the all-employee letter, Eddie Wu stated that the e-commerce landscape in China and globally is entering a new era, and the capabilities of global supply chains, fulfillment, and consumer services will determine the future competitive landscape.

To this end, the Alibaba E-commerce Business Group will integrate all e-commerce resources within the group, leveraging years of accumulated capabilities to serve domestic and global consumers well, while also helping more small and medium-sized enterprises expand into domestic and overseas markets.

Jiang Fan's performance in international business is the main reason he has gained recognition from Eddie Wu and Jack Ma. Over the past three years, the international business managed by Jiang Fan has been the fastest-growing segment among Alibaba Group's six major business units, becoming a growth engine for core operations.

In July last year, Jiang Fan, who had been removed from the list of Alibaba partners, reappeared on the list, indicating that his personal negative publicity events were completely behind him. Returning to the Alibaba partnership means he is starting to return to the center of power within Alibaba.

From a business perspective, over the past year, Taobao Tmall and overseas e-commerce have gradually moved towards integration and connectivity In July of this year, Taobao launched the "Global Free Shipping Plan for Fashion," leading fashion merchants to venture overseas first, and invested 1 billion yuan to turn Hong Kong into a free shipping zone. In September, Taobao upgraded its overseas strategy to the "Taobao Tmall Overseas Growth Plan," expanding the overseas categories from fashion to the entire industry and initiating comprehensive overseas expansion.

During the Double Eleven shopping festival, overseas expansion became a major highlight. According to Wall Street News, in the second phase of the shopping festival characterized by spot sales, Taobao's overseas business achieved strong growth, with nearly 70,000 global free shipping merchants doubling their transaction volume year-on-year, especially in places like Hong Kong and Singapore where the number of new customers also doubled year-on-year.

In the process of Taobao's overseas expansion, it has already collaborated with Alibaba International for business synergy. From a division of labor perspective, Taobao is responsible for merchant recruitment and supply, while Alibaba Overseas is responsible for consumer operations, validating that integration can bring more incremental growth.

In addition, 1688 and Xianyu, which originally belonged to Taobao, have also been incorporated into Alibaba's e-commerce business group, highlighting Alibaba's emphasis on the e-commerce supply chain. After all, behind Taobao and 1688 are over ten million small and medium-sized enterprises, and the rich and high-quality supply they represent is highly competitive in the global market.

Since its launch in 2003, Taobao has undergone 21 years of development. Now, the integration of Taobao, Tmall, and international business into a single strategy will undoubtedly bring new impacts to the e-commerce industry.

Focus

Connecting domestic and international e-commerce businesses is Alibaba's latest move in response to the domestic and international e-commerce landscape. From Alibaba's strategic adjustment tone, this change is somewhat inevitable.

In September last year, Eddie Wu was appointed CEO of Alibaba Group, clearly emphasizing a "user-first, AI-driven" strategic focus. Two months later, he comprehensively explained Alibaba's strategic blueprint for the new development stage, identifying three important priority directions for Alibaba's future: technology-driven internet platform business, AI-driven technology business, and a global commercial network.

In a series of adjustments, Alibaba's strategy has become increasingly focused. As he mentioned in a letter to all employees, e-commerce and AI technology are the group's most critical development directions, which will also determine Alibaba's future business stakes.

Previously, Eddie Wu held multiple roles, overseeing both e-commerce and Alibaba Cloud, requiring a significant amount of energy and presenting considerable management challenges. Now, with Jiang Fan fully taking over e-commerce, Eddie Wu can better focus on AI business.

From a management perspective, since Eddie Wu took office, he has also preferred to promote a younger team. Insiders close to Alibaba believe that establishing the e-commerce business group and appointing Jiang Fan to lead it aligns with Eddie Wu's proposed business strategy of focusing on core operations and his organizational vision of cultivating more young leaders.

Moving forward, Eddie Wu and Jiang Fan will take on the roles of Alibaba's core business leaders, fulfilling Alibaba's mission in this new phase, completing the most significant strategic structural adjustment in Alibaba's history, and steering this massive ship into the AI channel.

Domestically, Taobao has stabilized its market share. On November 15, Alibaba released its Q2 financial report for the 2025 fiscal year, with Eddie Wu stating that during the recently concluded Double Eleven in 2024, Taobao Tmall's GMV saw strong growth, and recent monthly transaction users reached a historical high. However, how to quickly enhance monetization capabilities and narrow the gap between GMV and CMR will be Taobao's focus moving forward On the international front, cross-border e-commerce is in a rapid growth phase of seizing market share. In the second quarter, Alibaba's International Digital Commerce Group reported a year-on-year revenue increase of 29% to 31.672 billion yuan, maintaining high growth. The company mainly faces localized competitors and competition from domestic peers. Additionally, how to implement domestic e-commerce infrastructure, supply chains, and service efficiency abroad will be a significant project.

For Jiang Fan, the key moving forward is to what extent domestic and international businesses can be integrated, as the capabilities of the two teams and the markets they face are different.

AI represents Alibaba's future. Two months ago at the Yunqi Conference, Eddie Wu stated that the greatest imagination of generative AI is not to create one or two new super apps on a mobile screen, but to take over the digital world and change the physical world.

In this all-staff letter, Eddie Wu indicated that Alibaba will continue to increase investment in AI, promote a productivity revolution driven by AI, improve AI infrastructure and supporting systems, and adhere to open-source principles. "We will continuously invest in AI product research and development in both B2B and B2C fields to seize the opportunities of the AI era."

Although the market space for AI is vast, it is still in its early stages, and there remains a significant gap between output and costs. While Alibaba Cloud achieved a 7% growth in the second quarter, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of growth acceleration, it still has a considerable distance to cover compared to e-commerce, which is its core business.

After more than twenty years of development, Alibaba is striving to shed its past burdens and start anew. As Eddie Wu emphasized, the 25-year-old Alibaba must maintain an entrepreneurial mindset and continue to innovate.

Whether in e-commerce or AI, Alibaba faces an extremely complex global market, which also determines that for Eddie Wu and Jiang Fan to maintain or even recreate Alibaba's former glory, they must continuously solve problems, leading to an unprecedented fierce battle