2023-06-20 10:55:55
The Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba announced Tuesday unexpectedly the replacement of its boss Daniel Zhang, in office for eight years, at a time when the group is undertaking a major restructuring of its activities.
Alibaba, China’s e-commerce pioneer, announced in March the biggest restructuring in its history, splitting its operations into six separate entities.
>> Read once more: Breaking up of Chinese tech giant Alibaba into six units
The group is a heavyweight in the Chinese tech sector, with activities in e-commerce, logistics, cloud computing, media, entertainment, but also artificial intelligence.Joseph C. Tsai (left) will succeed Daniel Zhang on the Alibaba board. [Ye Aung Thu – AFP]
Daniel Zhang will be replaced on September 10 as CEO by Eddie Yongming Wu, who heads the group’s main consumer e-commerce applications (Taobao and Tmall).
For his part, Joseph C. Tsai, the current executive vice president of Alibaba, will succeed Daniel Zhang on the board. Daniel Zhang will remain at Alibaba to lead the cloud computing arm, the group said.
Turn of the authorities
These changes come following several years of turmoil in the tech industry. Alibaba was particularly targeted by a regulatory tightening of the authorities once morest giants in the sector.
Alibaba had been the first company to suffer the punishment of the authorities. At the end of 2020, Beijing had thus stopped a gigantic IPO in Hong Kong of Ant Group, the finance and payment subsidiary of Alibaba, 48 hours before the event. The following month, Alibaba was investigated for impeding competition. These setbacks had strongly penalized its profitability in 2022.
>> Read once more: Chinese competition authorities launch investigation into Alibaba
However, the Chinese authorities seem to be letting go in recent months and adopting a more conciliatory attitude towards the sector, in a context of economic slowdown.
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