Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, also known as Alibaba Group and Alibaba.com, is

a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-
commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Founded on 28 June
1999 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, the company provides consumer-to-
consumer (C2C), business-to-consumer (B2C), and business-to-business (B2B) sales
services via web portals, as well as electronic payment services, shopping search
engines and cloud computing services. It owns and operates a diverse portfolio of
companies around the world in numerous business sectors.
On 19 September 2014, Alibaba's initial public offering (IPO) on New York Stock
Exchange raised US$25 billion, giving the company a market value of US$231 billion
and, by far, then the largest IPO in world history. It is one of the top 10 most valuable
corporations, and is named the 31st-largest public company in the world on
the Forbes Global 2000 2020 list .In January 2018, Alibaba became the second Asian
company to break the US$500 billion valuation mark, after its competitor Tencent. As of
2020, Alibaba has the sixth-highest global brand valuation.
Alibaba is one of the world's largest retailers and e-commerce companies. In 2020, it
was also rated as the fifth-largest artificial intelligence company. It is also one of the
biggest venture capital firms, and one of the biggest investment corporations in the
world. The company hosts the largest B2B (Alibaba.com), C2C (Taobao), and B2C
(Tmall) marketplaces in the world. It has been expanding into the media industry, with
revenues rising by triple percentage points year after year. It also set the record on the
2018 edition of China's Singles' Day, the world's biggest online and offline shopping
day.
Alibaba’s Number of Employees from Financial Year 2012- 2021

  As of the beginning of 2020, Alibaba had more employees than Yahoo

and Facebook combined. The majority of them were based in China. As of 2018, over
one-third of Alibaba’s senior management were female and around 45 percent of all
staff were under 30 years old. Every year on May 10, Alibaba group celebrates
Employee Appreciation Day. All employees, also called Aliren, bring their families to the
company campus for an all-day carnival.

Source: Statista 2021

Alibaba’s Human Capital

Alibaba’s culture values meritocracy over hierarchy, “outside the box” innovation the
spirit of embracing change, optimism, and idealism. The company commits to maintain
a kind and respectful environment so that everyone at Alibaba feels like a family
member.

The company’s values are fundamental to the way we operate and how it recruits,
evaluates and compensates its people. The values that the company always lives are:

 Customer First – The interests of our community of consumers, merchants

and enterprises must be our first priority.
 Teamwork – We believe teamwork enables ordinary people to achieve
extraordinary things.
 Embrace Change – In this fast-changing world, we must be flexible,
innovative and ready to adapt to new business conditions in order to
maintain sustainability and vitality in our business.
 Integrity – We expect our people to uphold the highest standards of
honesty and to deliver on their commitments.
 Passion – We expect our people to approach everything with fire in their
belly and never give up on doing what they believe is right.
 Commitment- Employees who demonstrate perseverance and excellence
are richly rewarded. Nothing should be taken for granted as we encourage
our people to “work happily and live seriously”.

In appraisals, Alibaba’s employees are rated our six core values in addition to business
performance, and these value-based ratings will affect employee compensation and
promotion decisions.

Anchored by its strong values, Alibaba’s human capital strategy includes:

 a strong focus on recruiting, retaining, and investing in best in class technical,

professional and managerial talent throughout the business;
 nurturing a diverse and empowered employee base;
 continuous training and development investments for employees to gain a global
and growth-oriented mindset and;
 promoting transparency
Alibaba’s future area of focus includes more in recruitment of international talents as
well as international training opportunities for its employees from China. Alibaba also
commits to continue to increase the diversity of its employees.

“We talk a lot at Alibaba about maintaining a culture of humility, openness, and equality. The
company has lots of influence on the economy and business in China, and extending into the
world. But that’s a privilege and a responsibility. So we keep a very close watch on culture here-
we even rank employees in their performance appraisals on how well they fulfil our values of
customer first, teamwork, embracing change, integrity, passion and, commitment.

JUDY TONG Chief People Officer, Alibaba Partner

RECRUITING AND RETAINING THE BEST TALENT

Alibaba offers competitive compensation and benefits (including retention through

equity-based compensation) and provide comprehensive and innovative career
development and training for its employees. The company recruits and invests best in
class talent across its business, including engineering, technical expertise in artificial
intelligence, quantum computing, cloud computing, digital media, e-commerce and
logistics, and world class managerial talent. The company is also establishing research
organizations around the world, with the aim of improving its capabilities in advanced
technologies. Alibaba’s technology talent is one of the areas that brings the company a
competitive advantage. On an annual basis, the company conducts surveys of
employee satisfaction and engagement to better understand gap areas that the
company needs to address and to gauge the overall sentiment of its employees. The
results of the surveys are presented to the company’s senior leadership and appropriate
actions are taken to address any concerns.

EMBRACING A DIVERSE WORKFORCE

Alibaba operates a transparent and inclusive work environment. The company believes
diversity is fundamental to maintaining its ability to innovate. Gender diversity is deep-
rooted in the history of Alibaba and the company owes its success to having strong and
effective female leaders. When Alibaba was founded in 1999, one-third of its 18
founders were women. Today, 12 of the 36 partners in the Alibaba Partnership are
women, and they take on senior management positions at Alibaba Group and its
affiliates. Within the company’s organization, women play prominent leadership roles in,
among other things, engineering, product, customer service, risk management, human
resources and financial management. As a company founded in China looking to grow
globally, it recruits talent in local markets as well as special programs to develop young
international professionals who can eventually play leadership roles in its organization.
Alibaba Global Talent Development is a program where the company recruits
approximately 30 professionals from around the world annually to come to its
Headquarters in Hangzhou for a two-year period. The program offers rotational training
in its business units in six-month segments as well as classroom and language
instruction and, upon graduation from the program, the employee is eligible for a
permanent position in one of its business units in China or overseas. Alibaba is a global
company and a meritocracy above all else. It does not discriminate on the basis of race,
gender, religion or sexual orientation.

TRANSPARENCY IN THE WORKPLACE

Alibaba fosters an open and transparent work environment through an emphasis on

communication and participation. The company believes that one of the most important
skills in good execution is the ability to effectively communicate values, strategies and
plans to colleagues. It has a structured and rigorous employee feedback framework
where each employee is reviewed and given feedback on a regular basis-from quarterly
to semi-annually depending on job level. Employee feedback includes not only reviews
on performance and values from supervisors, but also 360 degree surveys in the case
of managers who manage people, so that the views of junior team members and peers
can be heard.
Employees are encouraged to use “AliWay,” the company’s online intranet, to freely
voice their opinions online. Aliway includes an open forum for discussion and debate
about any subjects including strategy, products, company policies and working
environment. Posts in this forum are not pre-screened or censored. To encourage
responsibility for one’s opinions, the posts are made on a real-name basis, but Alibaba
makes it clear that this would not lead to any retribution. In addition, members of senior
management maintain an “open” email box for the purpose of receiving direct, private
feedback from employees. The “open” email provides a channel through which senior
management can learn of issues “from the front lines.”

TRAINING

Alibaba prioritizes continuous learning through a comprehensive training system at all

levels. Moreover, the company encourages top performing employees within Alibaba to
work overseas and encourage international staff to work in China. For senior and mid-
level management, the company places heads of business units and rising stars into
small training groups and offer them modules on its corporate culture and strategy. Our
most senior executives, including the chairman and CEO, participate in the teaching of
these training groups.

At the end of 2017, Alibaba conducted over 2,500 training sessions on 4,000 topics for
tens of thousands of its employees across Alibaba. Examples include sessions on
Alibaba culture, people management, strategic thinking, product knowledge, data
handling, and international business development.

Alibaba ESG Report 2018 < https://esg.alibabagroup.com/ui/pdfs/Alibaba-ESG-Report-

2018-Social.pdf>
What are the different methods that Alibaba use to train their employees?

What are the different training methods Alibaba to train their employees?

1. Alibaba’s Global Talent Training Program Gets Underway

Alibaba Group in May hung out an international “help wanted” sign with the
announcement of a global recruitment and training program called the Alibaba Global
Leadership Academy (AGLA).This week the first batch of 32 young professionals
arrived at the e-commerce giant’s corporate campus in Hangzhou, China, to begin a
year of cultural immersion, leadership training, and on-the-job experience that includes
work at various Alibaba business units.
The official start of AGLA might seem less than newsworthy considering the scale and
scope of Alibaba’s businesses—the company has more than 46,000 employees. But the
program is a reminder of Alibaba’s ambitious plans to expand its operations
internationally, which executives say cannot be accomplished without significant
changes to its overwhelmingly Chinese workforce.
“The world is more connected than ever before. People who can work across cultures
and languages represent the future,” said Jack Ma, Alibaba Executive Chairman. “We
know that for Alibaba to have a meaningful global impact, we have to be able to
understand other cultures, respect other cultures and appreciate other cultures. The
AGLA is one way we are building that trust and mutual understanding.”

Selected from 3,000 applicants, the inaugural class of 2016 is certainly diverse.
Program participants hail from 14 countries as well as from top universities such as
Harvard, Yale, Wharton, Oxford, Cambridge and the Indian Institute of Technology.
Alibaba said it screened candidates based on learning ability, strategic and innovative
thinking, and cultural fit for the company, among other factors. Being able to speak
Chinese was not essential. Half the class have no Mandarin skills.

In addition to on-the-job training at Alibaba, AGLA participants will be exposed to

China’s rapidly developing internet and e-commerce sectors, and will also learn about
China’s history, arts and trade. After one year, AGLA graduates will be dispatched to
work in Alibaba’s offices in the U.S., the U.K., Europe, Indiaand Southeast Asia. The
company said it expects to enlarge the class size for the yearlong program to 102
participants.

Brian Wong, an Alibaba vice president and AGLA executive director, said the program
was “designed to provide a grounding in the cultural and industry context of Alibaba to
enable our future global leaders to effectively collaborate in China and across borders.
At the same time, we intend to strengthen our headquarters’ global capabilities through
the interactions and contributions of our AGLA participants in China.” He added the
program will help “build a strong foundation for our future international footprint.”

Alizia Staff 2016 Oct 24, Alibaba’s Global Talent Training Program Gets Underway,
Alibaba <https://www.alizila.com/alibabas-global-talent-training-program-gets-
underway/>

2. ALIBABA GLOBAL TALENT DEVELOPMENT (AGTD)

Alibaba Global Leadership Academy (AGLA) is the umbrella organization

responsible for developing unique talent programs for various levels within Alibaba
Group, dedicated to nurturing the global skills and mindset required for international
growth.
The AGTD program is under AGLA and is the latest program aimed at developing
global talents in Alibaba.
Through 2 years within Alibaba's core business units at the headquarters in Hangzhou,
combined with classroom and experiential learnings, AGTD members will gain in-depth
business knowledge and cultural experience at Alibaba. The company expects AGTD
graduates to take critical roles in the businesses which are highly impactful in Alibaba's
globalization journey.
Transformational Experience in AGLA

Alibaba and Globalization

 Gain first-hand experience and a comprehensive view of Alibaba's
businesses. AGTD provides the participants with opportunities to learn
directly from its management team. Participants will become part of the
company’s globalization journey and help build bridges between China
and the rest of the world.
Impacting Society
 Experience Alibaba's unique culture through the eyes of a local.
Participants are assigned a “work buddy” and a “life buddy” to help
develop a deep understanding of company philosophy, and adapt to life in
Hangzhou.
Innovation
 Experience the cutting-edge of internet technology, working closely with
the most innovative pioneers of the new digital economy. In a customized
speaker series, Alibaba leaders will provide insight and analysis that are
only available with AGTD.
Accelerated Growth
 Through 2 years within Alibaba's core business units at the headquarters
in Hangzhou, participants will be expected to learn and grow fast. AGTD
graduates are crucial to Alibaba's globalization strategy, so there are
plenty of opportunities for them to thrive with Alibaba.

AGLA, 2019, Alibaba https://agla.alibaba.com/

Elaborating the Alibaba Training Program

Making you prepared to work with the best cloud providers of the globe, there is a wide
selection of Alibaba training program available. These training programs include both
fundamental basics and advanced learning materials. Whether you are a beginner or a
pro, the Alibaba training programs and certifications are very crucial.
The training programs will provide significant knowledge about the built of software
intelligence in the cloud. To make your way smoothly around the big data, Alibaba
training program will teach you the ways. Delivering an easier way for adopting Alibaba
cloud technology, the programs will boost your capability and activate your applicability.
Alibaba Training Program

In total, there are three levels of training programs available in Alibaba. Those
training programs include Alibaba Cloud Associate, ACP or Alibaba Cloud
Professional and ACE or Alibaba cloud expert. As the name suggests, the
Alibaba cloud associate suits perfectly the requirement of a beginner and Alibaba
cloud professional will make you an intermediate level expert in Alibaba cloud
computing. Yet, to become an expert and master all of the cornerstones of cloud
computing, you need to partake the ACE or Alibaba cloud expert course.
To boost up the performance and enhance your capability, Alibaba training
program also includes Alibaba cloud technical essentials, Alibaba cloud technical
operations, Alibaba cloud big data essentials and Alibaba cloud security
solutions. To get better knowledge about the cloud computing, elastic computing,
RDS, server load balance as well as object storage services, Alibaba Cloud
Technical essentials can help.
To improvise the management skills for working with Alibaba Cloud products, the
developers, technical operators and engineers need to master a certain level of
knowledge and Alibaba Cloud Technical operations could help to achieve that.
Alibaba cloud big data essentials make your knowledgeable about the
organization, analysis and interpretation of big data. This particular task is highly
important for defining data strategy to leverage the big data.
This particular Alibaba training program will help to understand the prioritization
of the data technologies for ensuring growth and driving the businesses forward.
In this particular training program, MaxCompute, HybridDB, DataIDE and other
linked services will be taught, which can certainly prove to be handy for
applications and solutions. Furthermore, there is a training program specifically
designed for the cloud security and it will allow to develop a significant insight
about the cloud security and Alibaba offerings.
Regional Training Programs

Alibaba also offers Apsara clouder technical certificates to boost up your professional
skills online. It offers cloud computing, cloud security and big data management
solutions. With handful of regional operating centers, Alibaba launched a new data
center in India as well. They are now providing Alibaba certified training programs in
India. The highly qualified cloud gurus of Alibaba will potentiate your skills and nurture
your cloud computing knowledge.
Both basic and advanced level courses are offered by these courses. Furthermore, a
wide array of tips and tricks to analyze and solve the problems with supreme efficacy
will be taught. At the same time, it allows the learners to know about cloud strategy for
betterment of businesses on a wide variety of verticals.
Elaborating the Alibaba Training Program, Strengthscapehttps://strengthscape.com/elaborating-
alibaba-training-program/

Alibaba’s winning HR strategy during the crisis

On January 23rd, 2020, Alibaba CEO Daniel Jiang, Executive Chairman of Ant
Financial Eric Jing, Secretary General Guo Jing and Alibaba Group Chief People Officer
(Head of HR) Judy Tong set up an emergency working group to leverage Alibaba’s
ecosystem to overcome the crisis and align people’s strategy within 4 focus areas: 

 Supporting medical services

 Supporting people’s daily life
 Supporting SME’s to overcome the crisis
 Bringing positive energy to society 

Alibaba HR came out with a « 3C strategy » to support businesses 

Here some initiatives from Alibaba HR’s strategy and examples of concrete actions put
in place with a very clear framework to support people during the crisis.
COMMUNICATION

From the beginning of the crisis, the HR team worked hands in hands with the
communication team to start a video program called « Daily news in the battle ». The
idea was to open a new communication channel in the organization that will broadcast
information and updates in real time to show how Alibaba's employees came together to
fight the battle. From a global initiative they delegate to every business units the
responsibility to create their own daily news reports and spread the news among each
department. In this kind of situation what is interesting to notice is how HR team couldn't
go alone on this project but needed the support of communication department and
effective cross-department collaboration was a key to succeed in this 1st C.

CONNECTING

 Connecting employees to employees: Alibaba collected from various team in

Hubei and from all around the world employees kind and positive messages.
Those messages will be spread among the organization and more specifically to
the team in Hubei in the epicenter of the crisis. The HR team also initiated more
creative and entertaining way to connect people by setting up for example an
online Karaoke using DingTalk (a collaboration platform developed by Alibaba
 Group). Alibaba breaks all the silos by inviting the top management to perform
during the Karaoke session in order to reinforce the « all together » fighting the
battle and bringing positive energy. Involving top management in such events is
not a first time for Alibaba as every year during the company annual party, Jack
Ma often was a star on stage doing role play or singing to create the show. You
can be a leader but still "mingle" and join your team activity to create this
"together" spirit.
 Connecting company to employees: The HR department was also in charge to
dispatch all medical supplies for Alibaba employees. Alibaba also initiated a
tracking system for each employees by generating a health green QR code that
should be shown when employees comes to work. Using the interface of Alipay
(payment platform by Alibaba) every citizen in China can also have access to
their personal "health green QR code" to show when they want to access to
public spaces such as: restaurants, bars, office buildings.

COMMITMENT

When such crisis happened, the main question for Alibaba and probably many
companies was « How do we keep inspiring people to keep performing well
during such difficult time? ». As an inspiring leader, Jack Ma created a powerful
video message to HR teams « Only those who can face challenges and
enterprises who can overcome difficulties will have a bright future ». By inspiring
HR teams they could then spread this energy to the rest of employees of the
organization.

HR teams then created « employees story » inviting "Aliren" (people working at

Alibaba) to make video about their typical workday. HR teams also created
inspiring content like posters with tips for better time management when you are
at home or even doing a rap song to make it more entertaining about how to
work from home effectively. Again Alibaba used a very down to earth content
creation strategy and keep it fun even in this hard time to keep the positive spirit.
The 3C strategy benefits

Alibaba’s HR strategy ensure during the crisis a smooth execution of all those initiatives
in the different business units of the group. This strategy succeeds to keep employees
focused and thrive better. HR in Alibaba group has deep business sense so that their
strategy could be aligned on business objectives. The outcome of such successful HR
strategy is tremendous: 

 Supporting people mentally and keep the positive spirit

 Maintaining employees engagement and business stability 
 Placing HR in a strategic position in company vision and strategy
 Strengthening corporate communication and transparency

Albin Warin 2020 April 29, Alibaba’s Winning HR Strategy during the Crisis, Linkedin
<https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/alibabas-winning-hr-strategy-during-crisis-albin-warin-
%E7%8E%8B%E4%B9%90%E5%BF%83/>

Alibaba and the Future of Business

Lessons from China’s innovative digital giant 
by Ming Zeng
From the Magazine (September–October 2018 )
 

Alibaba is not a retailer in the traditional sense. It doesn’t source or keep stock, and
logistics services are carried out by third-party providers. Instead, Alibaba is what you
get if you take all the functions associated with retail and coordinate them online into a
sprawling, data-driven network of sellers, marketers, service providers, logistics
companies, and manufacturers. Indeed, Alibaba does what Amazon, eBay, PayPal,
Google, FedEx, all of the wholesalers, and a good portion of manufacturers in the U.S.
do, with a healthy helping of financial services for garnish.

Alibaba achieves this by leveraging the new technologies of network coordination and
data intelligence. It harnesses the efforts of thousands of Chinese businesses to create
an ecosystem that is faster, smarter, and more efficient than traditional business
infrastructures.

This is an emerging business model that Ming Zeng, the chair of Alibaba’s Academic
Council, calls smart business. Players in the ecosystem share data and apply machine-
learning technology to identify and better fulfill consumer needs. This article provides a
framework for transforming a company into a smart business.

Alibaba is a smart business.

What Is Smart Business?

Smart business emerges when all players involved in achieving a common business
goal—retailing, for example, or ride sharing—are coordinated in an online network and
use machine-learning technology to efficiently leverage data in real time. This tech-
enabled model, in which most operational decisions are made by machines, allows
companies to adapt dynamically and rapidly to changing market conditions and
customer preferences, gaining tremendous competitive advantage over traditional
businesses.

Automate All Operating Decisions

To become a smart business, your firm must enable as many operating decisions as
possible to be made by machines fueled by live data rather than by humans supported
by their own data analysis. Transforming decision making in this way is a four-step
process.

Step 1: “Datafy” every customer exchange.

Ant was fortunate to have access to plenty of data on potential borrowers to answer the
questions inherent in its lending business. For many businesses, the data capture
process will be more challenging. But live data is essential to creating the feedback
loops that are the basis of machine learning.

Most businesses that seek to be more data-driven typically collect and analyze
information in order to create a causal model. The model then isolates the critical data
points from the mass of information available. That is not how smart businesses use
data. Instead, they capture all information generated during exchanges and
communications with customers and other network members as the business operates
and then let the algorithms figure out what data is relevant.

Step 2: “Software” every activity.

In a smart business, all activities—not just knowledge management and customer

relations—are configured using software so that decisions affecting them can be
automated. This does not mean that a firm needs to buy or build ERP software or its
equivalent to manage its business—quite the opposite. Traditional software makes
processes and decision flows more rigid and often becomes a straitjacket. In contrast,
the dominant logic for smart business is reactivity in real time. The first step is to build a
model of how humans currently make decisions and find ways to replicate the simpler
elements of that process using software—which is not always easy, given that many
human decisions are built on common sense or even subconscious neurological
activity.
Step 3: Get data flowing.

In ecosystems with many interconnected players, business decisions require complex

coordination. Taobao’s recommendation engines, for example, need to work with the
inventory management systems of sellers and with the consumer-profiling systems of
various social media platforms. Its transaction systems need to work with discount
offers and loyalty programs, as well as feed into our logistics network.

Step 4: Apply the algorithms.

Once a business has all its operations online, it will experience a deluge of data. To
assimilate, interpret, and use the data to its advantage, the firm must create models and
algorithms that make explicit the underlying product logic or market dynamics that the
business is trying to optimize. This is a huge creative undertaking that requires many
new skills, hence the enormous demand for data scientists and economists. Their
challenge is to specify what job they want the machine to do, and they have to be very
clear about what constitutes a job well done in a particular business setting.

Digital-native companies such as Alibaba have the advantage of being born online and
data-ready, so their transformation to smart business is quite natural. Now that they
have proven the model works and are transforming the old industrial economy, it is time
for all companies to understand and apply this new business logic. That may look
technologically intimidating, but it is becoming more and more feasible. The
commercialization of cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies has made
large-scale computational power and analytic capabilities accessible to anyone. Indeed,
the cost of storing and computing large quantities of data has dropped dramatically over
the past decade. This means that real-time applications of machine learning are now
possible and affordable in more and more environments. The rapid development of
internet-of-things technology will further digitize our physical surroundings, providing
ever more data. As these innovations accumulate in the coming decades, the winners
will be companies that get smart faster than the competition.

Ming Zeng 2018, Alibaba and the Future of Business, Harvard Business Review
<https://hbr.org/2018/09/alibaba-and-the-future-of-business>
Alibaba: China is a Huge Challenge and a Huge Opportunity
When J. Michael Evans tells a filled auditorium at the National Retail Federation’s
annual trade show that patience is one of the key requirements for retailers expanding
into China, you might want to listen.

See, he’s worked in retail in China for decades and he’s a top executive at a company
that appears to have a pretty good handle on the Chinese market — Alibaba. The
gigantic China-based marketplace has 600 million regular customers and hosts more
than 200,000 businesses and brands, including about thousands that are based in the
United States.

“It isn’t as simple as showing up in China with a product and saying, ‘There are 600
million people on Alibaba’s platform. Surely somebody must be interested,” Evans,
president of the Alibaba Group, said during an interview with Ian McGarrigle, chairman
of the World Retail Congress.

“Building your brand and building your consumer base and building that consumer
relationship in China takes time,” he continued. “If you’re impatient; if you’re in a hurry; if
you view this as something that you’re hoping will impact your quarterly results, this
year and maybe next year; then it’s not the market for you.”

China will be a $1.8 trillion online market by 2022

And it’s true. The road to cross-border commerce in China is littered with those who saw
the opportunity, but overlooked the challenges faced by Alibaba. Nonetheless, the
opportunity remains and is growing. Online sales alone in China reached $1.15 trillion in
2017. By 2022, Forrester says, the figure will be $1.8 trillion.

More importantly, cross-border commerce in China in 2017 surpassed $100 billion.

And when you listen to Evans, it’s clear the growth in those numbers in coming years
will be staggering. He pointed out that China’s middle class has swelled to 300 million
people. Within five years, he said, it will be 600 million.

They key for those expanding into China, of course, is understanding those consumers.

“The Chinese consumer is very young,” Evans said. ” The Chinese consumer is very
curious and very interested in new products and new ideas, creative things that are
coming from other parts of the world.”

In some ways, Chinese consumers have taken commerce trends that exist in other
parts of the world and super-sized them. Mobile is not only king, it is practically
everything. Mobile payments are huge.

“That consumer base — young, mobile, affluent — is also very story oriented,” Evans
explained. “They actually do quite a lot of work to understand what a brand or what a
(small or medium business) or what a retailers is selling, where the products come from,
and why they will fit their lifestyle today and in the future.”
But Alibaba — and the sellers on the marketplace — appear to have cracked the code,
for now. Consider those 600 million consumers. They buy stuff — a lot of stuff. Evans
said Alibaba has $780 million in sales. It delivers 70 million packages a day. On Singles
Day, the platform saw $31 billion in sales and delivered over 1 billion orders.

Impressive numbers — and potentially scary for retailers who are not Alibaba. Evans
did not address competitive fears directly, though he objected to being described as the
Amazon of China, pointing out the platform is a marketplace that shares customer data
with its merchants.

Alibaba will focus on developing markets next

But Evans did say that Alibaba is currently focused on markets in Southeast Asia, India,
Russia and other less mature markets. More work in Europe and the United States will
come after progress is made in the first priority, Evans said.

Of course, China, as a market, isn’t going anywhere, despite the current economic
slowdown in the China. The short-term is volatile, Evans said. But think of the long term.

“Long term, 10 years from now, that economy will probably be the largest economy in
the world,” he said. “Consumption, as part of total GDP, will be the largest piece.”

And one thing, Evans said, is certain about China.

“It will not be a market that most small businesses, brands and retailers can afford to
ignore.”

Mike Cassidy 2019 Jan 24, Alibaba: China is a Huge Challenge and a Huge
Opportunity, Signifyd < https://www.signifyd.com/blog/alibaba-challenge-opportunity/>

The Characteristics of Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is composed of seven characteristics that range in priority from

high to low. Every organization has a distinct value for each of these characteristics.
These 5 interviewees explained their understanding of organizational culture to the
author. All the 5 interviewees believed that Alibaba's cultural values promoted company
and product innovation. The interviewee 1 said：

"Alibaba's main values are to better serve customers and help customers solve
problems. In this process, employees must constantly seek some innovative ideas and
methods to solve problems."

And the interviewees 3 told author that：

“Alibaba encourages employees to be bold in exploration and innovation, and supports

employees to put forward their ideas, including suggestions for improvement.
Employees who have innovative ideas will also be accepted by their superiors. I think
this is the best way for employees to maximize their creativity and innovation."

Alibaba promotes employees' innovative behavior from their daily work, at the same
time, employees are encouraged to speak up their own ideas, which lays a further
foundation for Alibaba's innovation. The interviewee 2 concurred with this view, by
stating that:

“Alibaba encourages employees to be brave to break the class restrictions within the
company. Employees can cross the leadership of their own departments to
communicate with the company's top management and share their ideas boldly. I think
this is why Alibaba can have a steady stream of new ideas.”

This is also emphasized in Alibaba’s cultural values. Alibaba requires employees to

learn to embrace change, meet changes and be brave in innovation (Wenku, 2016;
Alibaba, 2008)