Juliana Liu, Columnist

Welcome Back Jack Ma. Don’t Forget the Little Guys.

Alibaba’s Ele.me stands to benefit from improving the pay and welfare of its hardworking delivery drivers.

September 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM UTC

Juliana Liu is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion's Asia team, covering corporate strategy and management in the region. She was previously CNN's senior business editor for Asia, and a correspondent at BBC News and Reuters.

In from the cold.
Photographer: Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg

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It would be smart of Jack Ma, now firmly back at the company he co-founded, to do more to improve the livelihoods of delivery riders powering Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s biggest business unit. Doing so would be a shrewd move in more ways than one.

Just months after publicly shaking hands with President Xi Jinping, heralding the revival of animal spirits among China’s technology firms that has boosted the stock market, Ma has returned to the office and is more directly involved than he’s been in years, Bloomberg News reported. Though without an official title, the iconic businessman’s reappearance has nevertheless fired up morale.