Alibaba folds delivery app and travel agency into e-commerce group

The restructuring “marks a strategic upgrade from an e-commerce platform to a comprehensive consumer platform”, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu Yongming wrote in a letter to employees on Monday. “Moving forward, we will increasingly optimise our business models and organisational structures from the user’s perspective to create richer, higher-quality consumer experiences.”

Alibaba, the business conglomerate founded by billionaire Jack Ma, owns the South China Morning Post.

Following the changes, Ele.me CEO Fan Yu and Fliggy CEO Zhuang Zhuoran will report directly to Jiang Fan, who leads Alibaba’s E-commerce Business Group. That division oversees domestic platforms Tmall and Taobao, as well as the company’s international e-commerce operations.

The move was designed to drive synergies across Alibaba’s consumer-facing businesses – “sharing unified objectives and fighting as one”, Wu said – reinforcing the e-commerce group’s role as the company’s main profit engine.

Ele.me was previously grouped with Alibaba’s mapping service Amap under the Local Services Group, while Fliggy had operated independently.

South China Morning Post