Lazada CEO heads Alibaba’s South Asian arm in the latest executive shuffle

James Dong, who heads Alibaba’s South-east Asian arm Lazada Group, will replace Daraz founder Bjarke Mikkelsen as acting CEO with immediate effect. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

Published Wed, Jan 24, 2024 · 04:19 PM

ALIBABA Group Holding’s South Asian online retailer Daraz Group installed a new chief executive officer, the latest in a series of management shuffles at the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut.

James Dong, 44, who heads Alibaba’s South-east Asian arm Lazada Group, will replace Daraz founder Bjarke Mikkelsen as acting CEO with immediate effect and oversee its operations in addition to his other duties, Daraz said in a statement on Wednesday (Jan 24).

Mikkelsen is the latest executive to depart the once-dominant Chinese tech firm that’s since been hobbled by lacklustre post-Covid consumption, a years-long government crackdown and the ascent of rivals including PDD Holdings and ByteDance.

Alibaba’s international division has grown to become one of its fastest-growing businesses and has explored an eventual initial public offering, but competition is intensifying, particularly in Asia.

Lazada is cutting jobs as it battles Sea’s Shopee as well as ByteDance’s TikTok Shop in the rapidly evolving South-east Asian e-commerce landscape.

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Lazada is still a distant second to rival Sea subsidiary Shopee in most key South-east Asian markets.

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Dong will work to integrate Daraz with the different companies in Alibaba’s international online shopping unit, Mikkelson said in the statement. “With this structure, we will have a more focused strategy and efficient business model,” he said.

A one-time business assistant to former group CEO Daniel Zhang, Dong headed Alibaba’s globalisation strategy and corporate development before joining Lazada as head of Thailand operations in 2018, according to the company’s website. He became Lazada’s CEO in 2022.

Alibaba acquired Daraz from Rocket Internet in 2018 in an overseas foray that now spans Lazada in South-east Asia and Trendyol in Turkey. The Pakistani firm, which also operates in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, last February cut 11 per cent of jobs to weather a slump in online commerce, after the war in Ukraine and soaring inflation disrupted supply chains and economic growth. BLOOMBERG

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