Alibaba’s CEO replaces e-commerce chief after growth falters
ALIBABA Group Holding chief executive officer Eddie Wu will take over the company’s core e-commerce business, replacing one of its most experienced executives at the helm of China’s biggest online marketplace.
Trudy Dai, one of an inner circle of partners present when Jack Ma founded the company in 1999, will now help the company set up a firm to manage some of its vast portfolio of assets around the world. Alibaba, whose investments include stakes in startups as well as entertainment and physical retail businesses, described that entity as overseeing the company’s assets without elaborating.
Wu will build a cohort of managers for the longer term, the company said. His decision marks the latest shake-up at the once-dominant Chinese corporate icon, which in recent years has endured post-Covid consumption volatility, a bruising years-long regulatory crackdown and – most recently – the surprise ascent of rivals including PDD Holdings.
“We must confront our past and change ourselves for the future,” Joseph Tsai, Alibaba chairman, said in an internal memo to employees. “Soon, we will empower a new cohort of management leaders who have developed fundamental skill sets and experience from the bottom up.”
Once the most valuable company in China, Alibaba has fallen behind games and social media leader Tencent Holdings. It lost its position as China’s most valuable e-commerce operator to eight-year-old upstart PDD, which has far outstripped Alibaba’s growth with the help of its hit shopping app Temu.
Ma, arguably China’s most famous entrepreneur, in November broke years of silence to issue a call to arms for employees, following years of brutal government punishment and strategic missteps.
Wu and other executives have talked about the need to review their investment portfolio, to identify and create value from Alibaba’s assets. Dai is one of its most influential leaders, an engineer by training who around 2022 took over the management of Taobao and Tmall, Alibaba’s main Chinese e-commerce platforms. The division accounted for more than 40 per cent of overall revenue this year. BLOOMBERG
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