Jack Ma, co-founder of technology giant Alibaba. Wang HE/Getty Images
- Temu's parent company, PDD Holdings, is currently more valuable than Alibaba.
- PDD's market capitalization overtook Alibaba a day after Jack Ma praised the rival e-commerce upstart.
- PDD's market cap is nearly $185 billion, while Alibaba's market cap is nearly $184 billion.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba hasn't had the easiest time over the past three years.
Alibaba – and its larger-than-life co-founder Jack Ma – dominated China's e-commerce sector for over a decade.
But at the end of 2020, Ma disappeared from the public eye after criticizing Chinese regulators. Since then, the company's shares have come under enormous pressure, losing more than three-quarters of their value since their peak in October 2020.
Meanwhile, the market value of rival company PDD – Temu's parent company – has surpassed that of Alibaba.
PDD's market cap is nearly $185 billion, while Alibaba's market cap is nearly $184 billion.
The turning point came a day after Ma acknowledged the rise of the PDD on November 28.
In a post on an internal Alibaba forum, Ma congratulated PDD and praised its strategic decisions. He also urged Alibaba employees to face the challenges of the industry.
“Everyone can be successful. “But only those willing to reform for tomorrow and the day after, and an organization willing to make whatever sacrifices necessary are considered respectable,” Ma wrote.
In November 2020, Alibaba canceled the planned $37 billion IPO of its subsidiary fintech company Ant Group. A month later, federal regulators launched an antitrust investigation that resulted in a record $2.8 billion in fines.
In May, Alibaba announced it would split into six smaller units – but abandoned plans to spin off its $11 billion cloud business in November, sending the company's stock price soaring.
Alibaba's shares in Hong Kong fell 2.6% to 68.65 Hong Kong dollars, or $8.79 apiece, as of 2:37 p.m. local time on Monday.
Alibaba shares on the New York Stock Exchange closed 0.26% lower at $72.14 apiece on Friday. The stock is down 18% so far this year.
PDD's share price closed 0.95% lower at $138.96 apiece on Friday. The stock is up 70% since the start of the year.
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