Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the largest e-commerce company on the Chinese mainland, said on Thursday that it has abandoned its plans to launch an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

"We've decided not to list in Hong Kong," Jonathan Lu, Alibaba's chief executive officer, said at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Lu added that Hong Kong authorities still need time to study and digest the innovative corporate governance structures of knowledge-based companies, such as Alibaba.