International employees
“We must absolutely globalize,” Zhang said during a speech for his employees. “Over the next five, 10 years, 30 years, this is the journey. […] If not Alibaba won’t be able to last.” That is why the company must change its internal structure, taking an international team on board to guide the company and looking for foreign employees – even though founder Jack Ma had announced in April that the company would temporarily cease to hire new staff because its expansion had been too rapid.
In the first quarter of the current fiscal year, Alibaba managed 45 % more turnover (about 2.5 billion euro) than it did last year. Only 9 % came from international markets, while it reached 11 % last year. Founder Jack Ma wants to boost international sales to 50 % of the company’s total turnover. Alibaba will therefore keep investing heavily in international projects like AliExpress and Tmall Global.
