After eight years at the helm of the company, Alibaba boss Daniel Zhang is surprisingly replaced.
According to a corporate statement from Tuesday September 10, the management of the Chinese e-commerce giant is to be taken over by Eddie Wu, who most recently headed the core business areas Taobao and Tmall. Also on this date, Joseph Tsai, his previous deputy on the board, will take Zhang’s place as head of the board of directors – the manager is also considered a long-time confidant of Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma. Zhang will now continue to lead the cloud business, as Alibaba announced in Hangzhou.
Some observers are critical of the change in personnel, especially since Zhang’s surprising departure at the top of the group comes at a time of upheaval. The group is struggling with market share losses after the pandemic subsided and had only recorded single-digit sales growth for three consecutive quarters. In March, the online retailer announced a deep restructuring and the split into six divisions with the aim of boosting its own growth and creating a group of independent market leaders in areas ranging from cloud computing and logistics to international trade. The plan was considered a grand vision by the outgoing Alibaba boss.
“Given the importance of Alibaba Intelligence Group on the way to a full spin-off, this is the right time for me to make a transition,” Zhang was quoted as saying in the current release. In the future, he will work to strengthen the market leadership of the cloud company. “The advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also opened up exciting opportunities that Alibaba Intelligence Group can take advantage of,” added Zhang.
Zhang took over the helm of the group in 2015 after gaining more notoriety as one of the architects of Alibaba’s New Retail initiative. A few years later, Alibaba’s growth skyrocketed, and the e-commerce giant became the world’s most valuable company at times. Then, in 2020, regulators cracked down on co-founder Ma and his Ant Group Co. after the billionaire angered regulators.
At the time, Beijing cracked down on the private tech sphere and accused Alibaba of monopolistic behavior. The dispute ended in a record fine of the equivalent of 2.3 billion euros at the time for the alleged violations. After that, the company never reached its previous significant growth, especially since new entrants like ByteDance Ltd. and PDD Holdings Inc. undermined the core business. Especially in the previous growth area of the cloud, Alibaba lost market share to state-supported competitors. (dpa)