‘After record IPO, Alibaba in most dangerous moment’

After its record IPO, e-commerce giant Alibaba is facing its ‘most dangerous moment,’ founder Jack Ma said on Thursday, even as the firm was working out plans to help small businesses in China and across the world. ‘Even two months before the IPO, people didn’t think we would make money,’ Jack Ma said at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen City. ‘Now the problem is people think we are too good — we can do anything. This is the most dangerous moment,’ 50-year-old Ma, also China’s richest man, said.

Thursday’s warning reminds of previous remarks from the tycoon on the challenges facing the company, from employees turning complacent and stopping innovation to failing to embrace opportunities in the mobile age. He is leading Alibaba into new businesses of digital entertainment and healthcare as it adjusts to post-IPO euphoria as the 10th-largest company by market value, surpassing Coca-Cola Company and Facebook Inc. Referring to the innovations in the pipeline, he said, ‘Traditionally, all we think about is how to sell products to others and how to get money out of the pockets of consumers. The internationalisation of Alibaba’s business requires us to ponder the issue of how to help others sell their products to us.’