It would be smart of Jack Ma, now firmly back at the company he co-founded, to do more to improve the livelihoods of delivery riders powering Alibaba Group Holding¡¯s biggest business unit. Doing so would be a shrewd move in more ways than one.

Just months after publicly shaking hands with President Xi Jinping, heralding the revival of animal spirits among China¡¯s technology firms that has boosted the stock market, Ma has returned to the office and is more directly involved than he¡¯s been in years. Though without an official title, the iconic businessman¡¯s reappearance has nevertheless fired up morale.

Once one of the country¡¯s most outspoken founders, Ma vanished from public view shortly after making sharply critical remarks in October 2020 about China¡¯s financial regulators and its state-owned banks. That 20-minute speech was surely the most expensive in corporate history, eventually costing Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Group ¡ª which was on the cusp of going public in Shanghai ¡ª about $877 billion in lost market value. It also resulted in a nearly $1 billion fine for Ant and an unprecedented crackdown on other tech companies and the broader private sector.

Ma¡¯s rehabilitation symbolically closes that dark chapter. But he is returning to a company that is facing a very different set of challenges than in September 2019, when he resigned as executive chairman in a planned leadership transition. Around that time, there was still talk of China surpassing the U.S. as the world¡¯s biggest economy. It was before the country¡¯s property crisis exploded into full view. The concept of involution or neijuan hadn¡¯t yet fully emerged, much less become a priority for Beijing to tackle.

Investors have applauded Alibaba¡¯s aggressive expansion into AI development. However, China¡¯s e-commerce industry, still the firm¡¯s largest money spinner, has significantly cooled, with growth in the online shopping user base slowing to just 1% in 2024 from the year before. The days when Alibaba held an 85% market share have long faded.

In fact, since e-commerce rival JD.com launched food delivery services in February, challenging the previous duopoly of Meituan and Alibaba-owned Ele.me, the $80 billion sector has been embroiled in a fierce price war. In response, analysts have collectively cut their share price targets on all three firms.

Morgan Stanley analysts led by Gary Yu wrote last month they expect the food delivery industry¡¯s long-term gross transaction value margin to shrink from the current 3.2% to 2.0%. Since May, China¡¯s top market regulator has summoned the players twice, urging them to engage in fair competition. They were also told to protect the interests of restaurants, which are seeing empty tables, and delivery riders, who have long complained about reduced...