Alibaba freezes executive pay amid China’s curbs on big tech

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has frozen pay for senior executives in 2021 and is instead giving junior staff bigger salary increases, sources said, in an effort to preserve its workforce amid a regulatory clampdown.

Hundreds of top-tier executives at Alibaba are not entitled to salary hikes this year, unless they performed extraordinarily, four sources familiar with the matter said.

The Hangzhou-based company, though, has offered considerable wage increases to junior staff, they said.

The pay moves mark a departure from the usual for Alibaba, which has been the focal point of China’s months-long crackdown on the mainland’s big and powerful technology companies on worries about their market dominance and ability to sway public opinion.