Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing division of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, is laying off 7% of its workforce as it prepares for an independent public listing. The restructuring follows the company's March announcement to split into six units, with the cloud division slated for a full spin-off within a year. While Alibaba Cloud leads in market share within China and ranks second in Asia-Pacific, its revenue growth has slowed, partly due to the loss of major clients like ByteDance and a strategic shift toward higher-quality growth. The layoffs, confirmed in May 2023, are part of efforts to streamline operations ahead of the IPO, with affected employees offered severance packages or internal transfer opportunities.
