Trader works at the post where Alibaba is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, US, March 28, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
BEIJING — Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu takes over the top role of Taobao and Tmall's e-commerce businesses, replacing Trudy Dai in the Chinese internet tech giant's latest management change this year.
Dai, one of Alibaba's 18 co-founders, will help set up an asset management company, according to an internal letter from Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai seen by CNBC.
Alibaba's announcement Wednesday comes after Wu replaced Daniel Zhang as the group's CEO in September.
Wu has been chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group since May 2023.
The e-commerce sector that once propelled Alibaba to success has run into trouble with emerging competitors like PDD, while consumption growth in China remains sluggish.
PDD's US-listed shares are up more than 80% so far this year, pushing the company's market capitalization higher than Alibaba's. In contrast, the Jack Ma-founded company has seen its shares fall about 14% year to date.
Contributing to the recent drop in Alibaba shares was news last month that the company had scrapped plans to list its cloud business due to US restrictions on advanced chip exports to China.
Alibaba had announced a major restructuring into six units in March, paving the way for individual stock listings, especially for its cloud business.
Wu became acting chairman and CEO of Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group in September after Zhang abruptly left the business unit.
“Eddie's leadership of both Alibaba Cloud and [Taobao and Tmall Group] will ensure a total focus on, and significant and sustainable investments in, our two core businesses: cloud computing and e-commerce, and will enable TTG to transform through technological innovation,” Tsai's letter said.
“We will soon be empowering a new crop of management leaders who have developed fundamental skills and experience from the bottom up.”
Dai “accomplished” the company's mission as it relates to Taobao and Tmall, and her new role at the asset management firm would allow her to “leverage her strengths,” the letter said.
During Alibaba's last earnings call in mid-November, the company said it planned to monetize its non-core assets and noted it had $67 billion in stocks and other investments on its balance sheet.
Tsai's letter did not include details about these non-core assets.