Alibaba ‘Shutters’ Luohan Academy Social Research Group

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has denied that it is shuttering its Luohan Academy social sciences think-tank amidst a broad corporate restructure, but acknowledged it is changing the institute’s organisational structure.

The South China Morning Post on Saturday cited unnamed sources as saying that the company had decided to close the academy, founded in 2018 to help solve “some of the world’s most pressing economic and social challenges”.

The report said some of the institute’s operations had remained ongoing while being folded into the parent company, including the environmental, social and governance research team.

Alibaba said on Monday that its focus on and investment in digital economic innovation of the kind championed by Luohan had never diminished.

‘300 years’

It said the academy’s research into the digital economy would continue under the auspices of a new non-governmental organisation called the “Luohan Institute for Digital Economy Research”, while acknowledging that areas including research on the environment, society and governance, would now be handled within the parent company.

“Luohan Academy and its brand will continue to exist,” Alibaba said in a statement.

When foundingn Luohan Academy in 2018, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma said he hoped it would continue to exist for 300 years.

But in 2020 a speech by Ma irked regulators and kicked off a wide-ranging crackdown on Alibaba, its fintech spin-off Alipay and other major tech firms in the country.

Tense regulatory climate

In 2021 Alibaba was hit by a record $2.8 billion (£2.3bn) fine and agreed to major changes.

The company is currently in the process of splitting up into six main units as well as smaller businesses, with its smart logistics unit Cainiao recently filing to raise at least $1bn in a Hong Kong IPO.