Alibaba's anti-corruption efforts strike hard again

Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Wang Xiaojuan

In the second half of the transition from "barbaric growth" to "refined operations" in major internet companies, the internal anti-corruption blade is no longer solely aimed at traditional commercial bribery; data security and the protection of trade secrets are becoming increasingly important regulatory red lines.

Recently, it was reported that the head of user operations (alias "Shimo") for Alibaba's idle fish platform was fired for serious violations of the company's data security regulations and was banned from future employment.

The announcement listed two violations: first, exporting important platform data to iCloud without authorization, and second, accepting paid consulting visits from external organizations, which violated the company's data security and confidentiality regulations.

Alibaba has not yet responded to the above information.

According to third-party data agency QuestMobile, in September this year, idle fish ranked 32nd in China's mobile app user scale list with approximately 217 million monthly active users, leading the category of idle transactions.

At the same time, QuestMobile released the "2025 Post-00s User Consumption Insight Report," showing that in October, the monthly active user scale of idle fish for the post-00s reached 43.61 million, ranking fourth in the mobile shopping app industry, with a year-on-year growth rate of 47.1%, second only to Hema.

In fact, data leaks are now considered a "zero tolerance" issue in major internet companies. The core person in charge of user operations at idle fish holds key user profiles, traffic distribution logic, and operational strategy data for the platform. Uploading such data to personal cloud storage (iCloud) objectively results in the core assets of the enterprise being removed from the company's security perimeter.

Regarding "paid consulting," this has become a gray area that major internet companies have cracked down on in recent years.

In September this year, ByteDance disclosed the handling of employee violations in the second quarter, with a total of 100 employees dismissed for violating company red lines. In the report on "violations of information security regulations," it mentioned that 10 employees who participated in external paid interviews were punished for violating the company's "Employee Code of Conduct" and information security regulations.

To prevent more employees from violating relevant regulations, ByteDance reminded in the report that external consulting companies may initiate paid interview invitations under the guise of "expert interviews" or "industry research" through platforms like Maimai, LinkedIn, and Xiaohongshu to obtain confidential company information. "To protect company information and data security, and safeguard your career, please refuse such invitations."

Internal anti-corruption at Alibaba has now become a normalized existence. As early as 2012, Alibaba established the "Integrity and Compliance Department" to investigate internal corruption issues. As of March 31, 2025, Alibaba has set up over 120 online and offline reporting points and has informed reporting channels through internal and external training, publicity, and sending emails/SMS to partners Alibaba has also launched four types of training for board members, management, employees, and partners, and employees are required to sign a confirmation letter for the "Code of Business Conduct" each year, committing to comply with the code.

It is reported that in the fiscal year 2025 (from April 2024 to March 2025), Alibaba will provide over 58,000 hours of integrity training for stakeholders such as ecological employees, suppliers, and partners.

Alibaba continues to take action against internal corruption. In the past three years, more than 100 cases of employee corruption have been referred for judicial processing. In fiscal year 2025, there were 33 cases of employee corruption referred for judicial processing, with 9 cases concluded. In the fiscal years 2023-2024, the number of corruption cases referred for judicial processing was 45 and 33, respectively.

Notably, Alibaba has introduced "supervisory responsibility" for managers regarding anti-corruption issues in its 2025 ESG report for the first time. The performance of the team in identifying and handling corruption will be directly included in the performance evaluation of managers. If managers fail to effectively fulfill their responsibilities, they will be held accountable, affecting their bonuses, promotions, and other evaluation results.

Jack Ma once said, "Everyone at Alibaba, including myself, can be investigated by the Integrity and Compliance Department."

On July 24 this year, the Shanghai police reported a case involving a senior executive of an internet company accepting commercial bribes: since July 2023, Han, a former vice president of a certain internet company in Shanghai, and others used their positions to assist suppliers in obtaining quality delivery areas and accepted bribes. In less than two years, they accepted bribes worth over 40 million yuan more than 30 times and concealed the money by dispersing it in multiple rented residences.

Han is the former CEO of Ele.me, Han Liu. In June of this year, he was taken away by the police from the Shanghai office. At that time, Ele.me responded that an internal investigation found he was suspected of job-related crimes and voluntarily reported to the police.

For Xianyu, as it accelerates its commercialization, strict internal corruption supervision is also a top priority for its smooth development.

In 2023, when Alibaba implemented the "1+6+N" structural reform, Xianyu was upgraded from a peripheral business of the group to a first-level business of Taotian Group.

In November 2023, Xianyu, Quark, 1688, and DingTalk were defined by Alibaba CEO Eric Wu as "four strategic innovative businesses of Alibaba." In Eric Wu's description of Xianyu, it is seen not only as a key tool for Alibaba to penetrate younger generations of users but also as a product that expands lifestyle based on C2C.

By this year, Alibaba has completed the integration of Taotian Group, Ele.me, and Fliggy, officially establishing the Alibaba China E-commerce Business Group, with Xianyu still being the core business segment of this group.

With the elevation of its status, Xianyu also faces greater commercialization pressure.

In June 2023, Xianyu ended its 9-year free model and began charging a 1% service fee for high-frequency and high-transaction sellers; starting in September 2024, this fee range will be further expanded to charge all sellers a 0.6% basic software service fee For any enterprise, achieving long-term healthy development requires anti-corruption as a necessary option. In the internet world woven with algorithms and code, integrity is also the most fundamental cornerstone.

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