Alibaba cancels traditional group wedding ceremony on firm’s annual family day amid corporate restructuring efforts

AliDay, the annual gathering of the e-commerce giant’s family members, started its traditional group wedding ceremony in 2006

Cancellation of that activity appears to reflect Alibaba’s current focus on a sweeping reorganisation of its US$257 billion tech empire

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There was no official reason given for dropping the group wedding ceremony, which was started a year after Alibaba Group Holding’s inaugural observance of AliDay in 2005. Photo: Weibo

Tracy Quin ShanghaiandAnn Caoin Shanghai

Published: 11:00pm, 10 May 2023Updated: 10:32am, 11 May 2023

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding on Wednesday marked a muted celebration of AliDay, the annual gathering of the company’s family members at its main Hangzhou campus, after the event’s traditional group wedding ceremony was cancelled.

There was no official reason given for dropping the group wedding, which was started a year after the inaugural observance of AliDay in 2005, even though a number of employees were looking forward to take part in the ceremony.

A female subscriber of Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like Chinese social e-commerce platform, had earlier posted that her husband applied to participate in the group wedding before learning that it was cancelled. She said they received some tableware from Alibaba, but there was no company logo on the gift.

A representative of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Daniel Zhang Yong, chairman and chief executive of Alibaba Group Holding, makes an appearance at this year’s low-key celebration of AliDay at the company’s main Hangzhou campus on Wednesday. Photo: Weibo

The group wedding’s cancellation appears to reflect Alibaba’s current focus on a sweeping reorganisation of its US$257 billion tech empire, which is its biggest corporate restructuring since the firm was established in Jack Ma’s flat in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, more than two decades ago.

Alibaba aims to reorganise its businesses into six independently run entities. These include Cloud Intelligence Group, e-commerce under Taobao-Tmall Commerce Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics, Local Services Group, Global Digital Commerce Group, and the Digital Media and Entertainment Group.

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