From layoffs to profit: Is Lazada finally ready for an IPO?

“NO COMPANY can stay at the top forever in any industry,” Jack Ma said in an internal memo sent to Alibaba’s employees on its 25th anniversary last week.

Still, Ma firmly believes that Alibaba is one of the few companies that can endure for 102 years. His motivational message comes at a time when the Chinese ecommerce giant has been grappling with intense competition from two major rivals: PDD Holdings and ByteDance.

In South-east Asia, Alibaba-owned ecommerce platform Lazada no longer leads any country in gross merchandise value (GMV), according to a 2023 Momentum Works report. It trails behind Shopee across the region and also TikTok Shop in Vietnam and Indonesia.