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Ali Baba He announced a major leadership reshuffle on Tuesday, with CEO and Chairman Daniel Chang planning to step down this year and be replaced by veterans of the Chinese tech giant.
Eddie Young-Ming Wu will take over as CEO, while Ju Tsai will take over as Chairman on September 10.
The two executives are veterans of Alibaba and a close confidant of Alibaba’s billionaire founder, Jack Ma.
But who exactly are they and what do their dates indicate about Alibaba’s future?
Eddie Wu, the next CEO
One of the founders of Alibaba is Eddie Wu, who first served it as CTO in 1999. His experience in the company’s core e-commerce, monetization and technology businesses made him a good candidate to oversee the entire group.
Wu also served as chief technology officer of major companies including Taobao and Alipay, the mobile payment service operated by Alibaba subsidiary Ant Group. He was responsible for Alibaba’s monetization platform on Taobao and Tmall, as well as directing efforts to drive the Taobao mobile app that ushered the company into the smartphone era.
“The appointment of Eddie Wu as CEO shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. He co-founded Alibaba and played a key role in both technology development and monetization at Taobao and Alipay,” says Jacob Cook, CEO of WPIC, an e-commerce company. and a marketing company that helps foreign brands sell in China, according to CNBC.
“His elevation to Group CEO is a natural transition and signals the enduring importance of e-commerce to the company’s roadmap,” added Cook.
Joe Tsai, the next president
Another co-founder of Alibaba, Joe Tsai was appointed CFO of the company until 2013 and currently holds the position of Executive Vice President. He is also the head of Alibaba’s Cainiao Logistics Unit, as well as a member of Taobao and Tmall Department.
Zhou Cai will take over as Chairman of the Board at Alibaba after current Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang steps down.
GBM | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Aside from his Alibaba activity, Tsai is also the owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team in the United States and is often seen as an executive who engages more with the world.
“The appointment of the internationally focused Tsai as chairman is fully consistent with the overseas strategy recently adopted by Alibaba, with significant investments in Lazada and recently announced plans to open a domestic version of Tmall in Europe,” Cook said.
Lazada is a Singapore-based e-commerce company owned by Alibaba, which has played a major role in its international expansion into Southeast Asia. Separately, Alibaba chief Michael Evans said last week that the company would launch Local versions of the Tmall e-commerce service in Europe.
Timing changes
It’s been a turbulent two and a half years for Alibaba, starting with the suspension of Alibaba’s membership Ant Group’s flagship IPO in November 2020 after failing to satisfy regulators.
The Chinese government has tightened regulations on the domestic technology sector in areas from competition to data protection. Regulators hit Alibaba with a huge antitrust fine of 18.23 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in April 2021.
The company has been experiencing slowing growth due to the slowing Chinese economy and increased competition from competitors such as JD.com and Pinduoduo. Its main cloud division, which outgoing CEO Zhang will devote all of his time to, saw revenue decline in the March quarter.
Cai Wu will look to reinvigorate growth at the company amid what continues to be a challenging macroeconomic backdrop.
“I don’t think the reshuffle says much about Alibaba’s business focus, and I don’t think it will have much impact on the company’s performance,” Shen Sun, senior lecturer in Chinese and East Asian business at King’s College London, told CNBC. By email.
“After all, the most important factors behind a company’s performance are structural, such as the collapse of its ecosystem, the increasingly complex regulatory environment, and the intense competition from competitors. None of these factors have changed.”
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