Alibaba CEO shuns low-price competition as profit roars back

Chinese e-commerce group posts first net income growth since 2020 after cutting costs

Alibaba has delayed plans to upgrade its Hong Kong listing status from a secondary to a primary listing amid growing Sino-U.S. tensions. © Reuters

CISSY ZHOU, Nikkei staff writer

February 23, 2023 21:12 JST

Updated on February 24, 2023 02:51 JST

HONG KONG -- Alibaba Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang said Thursday that the low-price strategies pursued by some online retaliers are not sustainable, as rival JD.com is set to spend billions of yuan on a subsidy program for merchants in a price war with Pinduoduo.

"We haven't been a low-price competitor," Zhang said in a conference call after the Chinese e-commerce group reported its first quarterly profit growth since 2020. "We haven't been relying on heavy subsidies. We haven't been engaged in low-level competition."