By CHENG Lu

May 10 marked the 20th anniversary of Alibaba's e-commerce arm?Taobao. In a conference call to mark the occasion, Trudy Dai, CEO of Taobao Tmall Group, said that Taobao will make "historic investments" to expand the user base for merchants and significantly increase content development.

Under Alibaba’s new structure, Taobao Tmall is focused on SMEs, brand development and supermarket business. An SME development center will serve entrepreneurs and small businesses and establish over 200,000 stores.

Over the past year, livestreaming has grown by more than 70 percent. The short-video user base on Taobao Tmall has increased by 37 percent.

LIU?Peng, president of the brand development center, said there is still room for growth. Liu aims to become the user's friend and encourage users to spend more time browsing through promotions, livestreaming and other engagement. As the growth of the internet slows, if the platform continues with the existing business model, there will be no rapid growth. Only new models can create new growth.

Dia said that the new organizational structure is designed to build an open, inclusive and win-win ecosystem.

On the technological front, Taobao will upgrade merchant tools and launch new AI products and services. Within five years, Taobao hopes to provide comprehensive free access to merchant operation tools.

As for the upcoming 618 shopping festival, the first major shopping event for the new management team, the focus will be on price and livestreaming. Taobao Tmall will introduce the "Juhuasuan Direct Discount" area, where all products will be directly discounted without the need for order aggregation.