fbpx

Type to search

Alibaba Revamps E-Commerce Businesses, Names New CFO

Changes come as Alibaba faces headwinds on multiple fronts, including increased competition, a slowing economy and a regulatory crackdown


Alibaba will reorganize its businesses into six "independently run entities to shorten its decision-making process".
Alibaba will reorganize operations into six units with decisions on hiring and firing, research, profit and losses to be decided by heads of each unit to enhance decision-making and enable faster responses to market changes, CEO Daniel Zhang said. File photo: Reuters.

 

Alibaba Group Holding said on Monday it was reorganising its global and domestic e-commerce businesses and would name a new chief financial officer.

The changes come as Alibaba faces headwinds on multiple fronts, including increased competition, a slowing economy and a regulatory crackdown.

Alibaba said it would form two new units to house its main e-commerce businesses – international digital commerce and China digital commerce, in a bid to become more agile and accelerate growth.

The international digital commerce unit will house Alibaba’s overseas consumer-facing and wholesale businesses, and include AliExpress, Alibaba.com and Lazada. The unit will be headed by Jiang Fan, whose had been president of the Taobao and Tmall marketplaces.

 

China Digital Commerce

Alibaba will house its domestic commerce businesses in the China digital commerce unit which be led by Trudy Dai, a founding member of Alibaba, it said.

The company’s deputy chief financial officer, Toby Xu, will succeed Maggie Wu as the company’s chief financial officer from April, it said, describing his appointment as part of the company’s leadership succession plan.

Xu joined Alibaba from PWC three years ago and was appointed deputy CFO in July 2019.

Wu, who helped lead three Alibaba-related company public listings as CFO, will continue to serve as an executive director on Alibaba’s board.

The e-commerce giant’s Hong Kong-listed shares slid 8% in early morning trade, tracking declines on Friday made in the United States.

US-listed shares of Chinese firms tumbled on concerns about stricter regulatory scrutiny at home in the wake of plans by Didi Global to delist from the New York Stock Exchange.

Last month the company slashed its forecast for annual revenue growth to its slowest pace since its 2014 stock market debut and saw sales at its banner event, online shopping festival Singles Day, grow at their slowest rate ever.

 

  • Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard

 

 

 

ALSO READ:

 

Alibaba Among China Tech Giants Fined For Unreported Deals

 

Hang Seng Suffers From Alibaba Hit As Inflation Fears Weigh

 

Alibaba Shares Plunge 10% After Earnings Slump, Slow Growth Warning

 

 

Tags:

Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd papers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before travelling through SE Asia in the late 90s. He was a senior editor at The Nation for 17+ years and has a family in Bangkok.