Alibaba CEO Takes Direct Control of Domestic E-Commerce Business — Update
By Sherry Qin
Alibaba Group Chief Executive Eddie Wu will take direct control of the company's domestic e-commerce arm, the latest management shuffle at the e-commerce giant as it struggles with new competition from the likes of PDD Holdings in its home market.
Alibaba said Wednesday that its board has approved Wu's appointment as chief executive of Taobao and Tmall Group, the company's domestic e-commerce business, effective immediately, according to an exchange filing.
Wu is replacing Trudy Dai, previously Taobao and Tmall Group CEO and one of Alibaba's founding members.
The change-up represents the latest leadership moves at the e-commerce titan, which after dominating China's e-commerce market for years, has now stumbled on several fronts.
Alibaba pioneered online shopping in China, then expanded into cloud computing, physical supermarkets and digital entertainment.
It started to hit headwinds when Jack Ma, its co-founder, was caught up in Beijing's regulatory crackdown three years ago. In recent months, the company lost a long-running chief executive. Wu earlier this year stepped into the CEO role vacated by Daniel Zhang. Wu also became chairman and chief executive of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group in September after Zhang left abruptly.
A restructuring plan to revive Alibaba has quickly hit roadblocks.
Alibaba went public in 2014, and its stock price took off. Those gains have fizzled, and Alibaba's shares now trade near their IPO price.
In late November, Alibaba slipped from its long-held market capitalization perch as China's most valuable online-retail company, losing the title to PDD Holdings, which runs e-commerce platforms Temu and Pinduoduo.
The latest management shake-up means Wu will directly run Alibaba's two core businesses, e-commerce and cloud, in addition to being at the helm of the company.
Alibaba said it would also form a new asset-management company to focus on the operation of the company's non-core assets as part of its efforts to "improve return on capital and enhance shareholder value."
Write to Sherry Qin at sherry.qin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 20, 2023 05:59 ET (10:59 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.-
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