Jack Ma breaks silence to rally Alibaba's troops as woes deepen

Founder urges e-commerce pioneer to correct its course’ as rival PDD posts stellar results

China’s most famous entrepreneur broke years of silence about Alibaba Group Holding with a call to arms for employees, following years of brutal government punishment and strategic missteps that cost the e-commerce pioneer its place as leader of the country’s tech industry.

Mr Jack Ma, the once-outspoken billionaire who has stayed out of public view after clashing with Beijing, took to an internal message board to urge Alibaba to “correct its course” and lauded rival PDD Holdings, which has been swiping market share. He expressed confidence that the 220,000-plus employees can return to their success of the past with determination and hard work.

“Every great company is born in a winter,” Mr Ma wrote in response to a staff post. “The people willing to reform for the future and the organisations willing to pay any price and sacrifice are the ones that are truly respected.”

Once the most valuable company in China, Alibaba has fallen far behind games and social media leader Tencent Holdings. Alibaba’s market valuation has tumbled from more than US$850 billion (S$1.13 trillion) three years ago to about US$190 billion. It is in danger of being eclipsed by PDD, an e-commerce upstart that reached US$176 billion with a successful expansion abroad.

It is not clear whether Mr Ma has been given explicit approval from the authorities to resume a more public role – or whether he simply could not stay silent any longer about the company’s strategy, given its many problems. Mr Ma ceded his role as chief executive officer before Alibaba’s initial public offering in 2014, leaving day-to-day management largely to his lieutenants since then.