Why Chinese Internet Giants Are Redesigning Their Organizations for the B‑Side Era

From the end of last year to early this year, the three Chinese internet giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent all carried out large‑scale organizational restructurings within a few months, a rare simultaneous move among the BAT companies.

Why Care About Organizational Changes?

The adjustments reflect a shift in strategic focus: the stable, long‑term vision of the organization versus the rapidly evolving execution levers of talent, organization, and KPI. While the mission and vision remain constant, the execution strategy must adapt quickly to market trends.

Mission, Vision, Values, Organization, Talent, KPI

The first three define direction; the latter three drive strategy execution. Alibaba’s long‑standing mission “to make it easy to do business anywhere” illustrates a stable direction, whereas the execution levers evolve with trends.

Upward Trend: The Internet’s Second Half

Observing the restructurings reveals a common emphasis on the ABC strategy—AI, Big Data, and Cloud—highlighting a move toward “capability openness” and platform‑based empowerment for industries and society.

Vision sets direction, trends set strategy, strategy sets organization, organization sets technology.

These changes signal the end of the consumer‑centric “first half” of the internet and the rise of a B‑to‑B, industry‑focused “second half” driven by supply‑side reform.

Downward View: Technical Architecture and the Middle Platform

In the first half, success depended on rapid user acquisition; technology merely supported business needs. Now, with user growth plateauing, internet companies must consolidate core capabilities—cloud, big data, and AI—into a middle platform that can be shared internally and opened externally.

Facing the industry, capabilities must be output; first identify core capabilities, then continuously refine and deliver them via a middle platform for internal coordination and external openness.

The middle platform becomes the vehicle for building, sharing, and exporting core competencies, positioning the company as the underlying “infrastructure” for digital transformation.

Summary

With a stable vision, strategy must follow and anticipate trends.

The mobile‑internet boom (2012 onward) marked the “first half” focused on consumer digitalization.

Since 2018, consumer‑side growth has saturated, prompting a shift to supply‑side reform and the rise of the industry internet.

All major BAT players adjusted their structures simultaneously to align with this new strategic landscape.

The ABC capabilities (AI, Big Data, Cloud) are now the core levers for the B‑to‑B era.

The upcoming battle will be a competition of capabilities.

Middle‑platform construction is essential for discovering, refining, and exporting core abilities, enabling internal collaboration and external ecosystem building.

Ultimately, the middle platform will occupy a strategic position in enterprise digital transformation.