Jack Ma congratulates PDD and rallies Alibaba employees to change

Yesterday (29 Nov 2023), PDD’s market cap briefly overtook that of Alibaba, making the young company the most valued ecommerce platform in China. 

Throughout the history since PDD (or Pinduoduo)’s rise, people have cast doubts, and even today many are dismissing its global initiative Temu as simply a money-burning blackhole. But on Tuesday (28 Nov 2023), PDD’s quarterly earnings again surprised everyone.

Alibaba employees have been watching this with ‘shocked’ feelings. On 29 Nov, someone posted a memo in Alibaba’s internal forum on this – and Jack Ma responded. English translation of the posts below: 

Poster, Employee 1

Subject: Still leaving this post

At this moment, unable to sleep and afraid to think, Pinduoduo’s market value has directly reached $185.5 billion. Compared to our $194.3 billion, the gap is only $8 billion, which really gave me a shock. That seemingly insignificant “Slash a Price”(砍一刀) feature of Pinduoduo is almost becoming the big brother to us.

I didn’t want to post this content-less message, but upon reflection, I still leave this post as a memo and as an encouragement to myself. I hope to work together with my brothers in the group to make small contributions and surpass them again.

Employee 2 responding to the post:

Simple buying, simple returns, less trickery, more benefits. I’ve never felt that using Tmall or JD is more upscale than using Pinduoduo… The original intention of making business easier should be to serve and achieve a greater public, right?

Jack Ma’s comment on Employee 2’s post:

Very good. Please everyone offer more constructive opinions and suggestions, especially innovative ideas. I believe that today’s Alibaba people are all watching and listening. I am even more convinced that Alibaba will change, Alibaba will improve. All great companies are born in winter. The era of AI e-commerce has just begun, it’s an opportunity and a challenge for everyone. Congratulations to PDD for their decisions, execution, and efforts over the past few years. Everyone has had their moments of glory, but organisations that reform for a better tomorrow and are willing to pay any price and make sacrifices are truly respectable. Returning to our mission and vision, Alibaba people, let’s go!

Partner, Jack Ma