Alibaba Sketches Out Its Game Plan To Come Back From a Horrific Year
- CEO Zhang identifies global business as a key area of growth
- Alibaba faces growing competition and regulatory turmoil
Daniel Zhang
Photographer: Jason Alden/BloombergAlibaba Group Holding Ltd. unveiled a sweeping blueprint to grow its international business and delve deeper into an under-served 15 trillion yuan ($2.4 trillion) rural Chinese e-commerce market, laying out its recovery plan after a devastating year marked by political and economic turmoil.
Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang and his lieutenants on Friday identified overseas business, poorer cities and cloud technology among the company’s prime growth drivers in the years ahead. Their multi-layered presentations during the company’s annual investor conference underscored how Alibaba is keen to show it’s got an answer to intensifying competition, dwindling consumer spending and Xi Jinping’s campaign to curtail the growing influence of internet titans from Alibaba to Tencent Holdings Ltd.