Alibaba set to lose no. 1 ecomm player spot to PDD

Alibaba Group Holding is set to lose its position as China's most valuable e-commerce firm to eight-year-old upstart PDD, a watershed moment for an internet industry that Jack Ma's firm dominated for more than a decade.

Alibaba slid as much as 1.4% in Hong Kong, putting its market value at about $187 billion and on track to close below US-listed PDD Holdings' $188.3 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations. PDD, the company best known for hit US shopping app Temu and domestic bargains trailblazer Pinduoduo, closed nearly 2% higher in New York on Wednesday.

The once-inconceivable shift reflects the turmoil that engulfed Alibaba after Beijing in 2020 targeted the company and its once-outspoken co-founder, kicking off a sweeping crackdown on the powerful tech sector. It also signals the rise of a generation of upstarts from PDD to ByteDance, which are disrupting the traditional arenas of social media and e-commerce.


On Wednesday, Alibaba's co-founder Ma stunned employees when he took to an internal forum both to praise PDD and exhort his company's 220,000-plus staff to "correct course" and retake the momentum.