Six major business spin-offs and listings, why is this Alibaba's last chance?

After Zhang Yong announced that Alibaba's major business branches will be split and listed, the market was in a frenzy.

Alibaba's stock price has seen a long-awaited rise, showing how much the market expects from it.

If we must find Alibaba's highlights in recent years, Zhang Yong's adjustments to Alibaba are undoubtedly one of the few.

Although Zhang Yong's every transformation of Alibaba has brought infinite expectations to the market, these adjustments and transformations seem to have not really brought Alibaba onto a new development track.

The reason is that only surface-level and shallow adjustments have been made to Alibaba's business, without touching on Alibaba's core business. Even if it is a revolutionary transformation, it is only a flash in the pan. Once the market loses interest, everything will return to its original state.

If we must find the most commendable part of Zhang Yong's transformation of Alibaba in recent years, it is perhaps the separation and listing of all businesses except Taobao and Tmall.

In a sense, the split listing may be the last chance the market has given to Alibaba.

If the split listing fails, Alibaba will not be able to break down into smaller parts, and its development will continue to decline.

Alibaba's business model

Looking back at Alibaba's history, it is clear that capital plays a very important role in it.

It can be said that capital has made Alibaba what it is today, but it has also led Alibaba into a dead end.

For Alibaba, finding a way to interact positively with the capital market is the key to its development.

This is not only reflected in the important role that capital has played in Alibaba's growth, but also in Alibaba's later development process.

After taking over Alibaba, Zhang Yong did indeed continue its development through different methods, but these transformations were based on Alibaba itself and did not really touch Alibaba's soul.

So what is Alibaba's soul?

I believe that Alibaba's core soul lies in its positive interaction and deep connection with the capital market.

If Zhang Yong only makes changes based on Alibaba itself and does not find the connection between Alibaba and the capital market, then his transformation of Alibaba, no matter how radical, will only be superficial. Only by truly touching on the capital level and finding a way for Alibaba to interact positively with the capital market can he find the correct way to transform Alibaba and grasp the key to bringing deep change to Alibaba. In recent years, Zhang Yong's attempt to transform Alibaba by independently splitting and listing its major business branches is one of the few attempts to transform Alibaba from the perspective of the capital market.

It can be said that by independently splitting and listing the major branch businesses, it can restart the capital market's interest in Alibaba, establish their connection with Alibaba, and once again make Alibaba's market capitalization bigger and stronger.

In short, Zhang Yong is trying to create a series of "mini Alibabas" by splitting and listing Alibaba's various branch businesses, and use this to let Alibaba, and even the entire capital market, reimagine Alibaba.

Market development environment

If there is one word to describe the current market, "big changes" may be the most appropriate.

The so-called "big changes" are actually due to the failure of traditional development models and the emergence of new development models.

In such a big change, any player in it will inevitably need to constantly change in order to cope with such a big change.

This is not only reflected in Alibaba, but also in Tencent, BIDU-SW, Pinduoduo, and other players.

Reviewing the attempts and explorations of these players, we can see that only those models and technologies that can truly touch the essence and bring disruptive changes can regain the market's imagination of old Internet players represented by Alibaba.

Observing Alibaba's development in recent years, we can see that although Alibaba has made many attempts and explorations, there are few changes that truly touch the essence and can fundamentally subvert its own business model and development logic.

It can be foreseen that if Alibaba cannot find a way and method to fundamentally change its development model, and only patch up on the original "base", then even if it can temporarily alleviate Alibaba's difficulties and problems in the development process, it cannot truly bring lasting development momentum to Alibaba from the root cause.

This is the key reason why Zhang Yong has made so many changes to Alibaba, but still cannot get Alibaba out of the haze.

If we must find a way to truly touch Alibaba's essence and transform Alibaba's internal transformation, then independently splitting and listing different businesses is undoubtedly the one that touches Alibaba's essential model.

However, this does not mean that Alibaba can rest easy. If it cannot keep up with the changes and transformations of new technologies and models in the future, and cannot keep up with the capital-level changes, then Alibaba will still be unable to get rid of the current development dilemma.

Alibaba's internal development

As Zhang Yong said when announcing the independent splitting of various branch businesses, under Alibaba's large group model, the communication efficiency between various branch businesses has decreased, and the constraints between various branch businesses have increased. To change this situation and restart Alibaba's organizational vitality, it is necessary to break the organizational model and decision-making mechanism based on Alibaba's large group, To enable different business branches to make more efficient decisions and operate more quickly.

The implication is that the traditional conglomerate model has severely constrained Alibaba's development, affecting its pace and rhythm. Therefore, Alibaba needs to break the traditional conglomerate model, empower different business branches to be responsible for their own profits and losses, and restart their vitality, thereby making Alibaba's development faster and more efficient.

If only organizational restructuring is carried out, it is far from enough. Only by allowing different business branches to make independent decisions and determine their own development paths, and by delegating power as much as possible, can their development vitality be activated.

From this perspective, the constraints and poor communication between Alibaba's internal businesses have seriously affected Alibaba's efficient operation. To solve this dilemma, it is necessary to use independent spin-offs and listings as a relatively thorough and comprehensive way to break the existing development dilemma and truly bring Alibaba's development into a new stage.

Therefore, Alibaba's internal corporate disease has determined that it must undergo a deep and thorough transformation. Otherwise, this kind of corporate disease will seriously hinder its benign development and even bring its development into a new dilemma.

If no reform is carried out, Alibaba will fall out of the top internet platform companies and even be surpassed by the entire industry. From this perspective, spin-offs and listings may be the last chance for the market to give Alibaba to transform itself and reawaken itself.

Conclusion

Reviewing Zhang Yong's transformation of Alibaba in recent years, splitting different businesses and independently listing them is undoubtedly a transformation that truly touches Alibaba's inner soul and development logic.

In a sense, splitting different businesses independently and listing them is the last chance for Alibaba.

If this move fails, Alibaba will not only be unable to get rid of the current development decline, but will also bring its development into a new dilemma.

As for whether Alibaba can seize this opportunity, it depends on whether Zhang Yong's transformation of Alibaba this time can succeed.