Alibaba reduces head count by a further 20,000 in 2023, along with share buyback

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. cut its staff by roughly 20,000 over the course of 2023, adding to a spate of layoffs spanning global tech companies from Silicon Valley to Hangzhou.

China’s e-commerce pioneer ended December with 219,260 employees, down from close to 240,000 a year earlier, it said in detailing its earnings for the holiday quarter on Wednesday. The company’s pace of eliminating roles has been fairly steady, as it reduced headcount by roughly the same number over the course of 2022 as well.

Mirroring US peers like Meta Platforms Inc., Alibaba paired the reduction in staff with a significant buyback, extending its authorization for repurchases by another $25 billion on Wednesday. The company bought back $9.5 billion worth of shares in 2023.

For Alibaba, once China’s most valuable company, the large staff has had to support a sprawling network of e-commerce, cloud, logistics, and related services. But in recent times it has sought to offload peripheral holdings and prepare its main business units to break off into separate entities. That has entailed cost cuts and asset sales, under the new leadership of Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu and Chairman Joe Tsai.