Eddie Wu has surprisingly been appointed head of one of China’s largest companies – Alibaba. This is known about the realignment of the online group and the strategy of the new management team.
• Surprising change in boss at Alibaba in a period of upheaval
• Keeping pace in the “AI era”: growth and user focus
• Chinese government gives green light for AI applications
Eddie Wu, who surprisingly took over from Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang on September 10, 2023, is considered a companion of Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma. Eddie Wu thus emerges from the second row of Alibaba management. When it was founded in 1999, he was one of the first programmers and chief technology officer of the Chinese online giant. However, ex-CEO Daniel Zhang will not remain on the group’s board of directors as head of the cloud business, as was first reported, but has now left the group without giving reasons, according to a statement from the company to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
New Alibaba boss Eddie Wu: Focus on users and AI
After the coronavirus pandemic subsided and the Chinese government’s measures against technology companies that have been ongoing for two years, the Alibaba Group has struggled with the loss of market share and has only recorded single-digit growth for three quarters in a row. A restructuring of the group announced in March 2023 and the associated split into six areas should stimulate growth again.
The sudden departure of Daniel Zhang, who played a key role in driving the restructuring and growth of the group, is seen by observers as confirmation of the growing influence of the new management team around Eddie Wu and Group Chairman Joe Tsai. Furthermore, it could be an indication that the government in Beijing is moving closer to the tech group and the former Alibaba boss Jack Ma, who has been in hiding for a long time, as the FAZ writes.
In a letter quoted by CNBC, the new Alibaba CEO addressed his employees and explained the cornerstones of his business strategy. He let his employees know that he relies on a “startup mentality” and wants to focus on the user and the development of AI-based modules. “If we don’t keep up with the changes of the AI era, we will be displaced,” Wu said, emphasizing the importance of investing in artificial intelligence. And further: “Times are changing, and so must Alibaba! As the world moves forward, Alibaba must evolve even faster.” In order to “keep pace” in the AI era and not be pushed out, Alibaba must invest not only in technology, but also in “globalization” and the promotion of young talent for the future business management team.
“Each of our companies generates a large number of use cases, so we must transform these use cases into applications for AI technology and drive breakthrough user experiences and business models through technological innovation,” said Eddie Wu. The Alibaba boss also wants to open up to collaboration with competitors.
Chinese government allows AI applications
Alibaba Cloud launched a large language model called Tongyi Qianwen in the spring of this year, which has so far only been made available to selected users for testing purposes. In mid-September, according to Handelsblatt, the Chinese government also announced that the application had passed the AI security check and gave the green light for an open source version.
Alibaba subsidiary Ant Group, which operates the AliPay payment service among other things, announced a finance-specific AI model for the Chinese market at the beginning of September, as Cryptopolitan reports. The so-called “Large Language Model (LLM)” is intended to help companies analyze markets and evaluate financial products. In contrast to well-known AI modules such as ChatGPT, LLM is intended to have specialist knowledge and the corresponding terminology. “Ant Group has developed an architecture that combines LLM technologies with expertise and industry services,” IT-Times quotes application head Wang Xiaohang.
The IPO of billionaire Jack Ma’s giant fintech, which was originally planned for 2017 and has already been postponed several times, remains uncertain.
Editorial team finanzen.net
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