The Alibaba Group revealed a surprising succession plan on Tuesday. Eddie Yongming Wu, a seasoned e-commerce executive, will succeed Daniel Zhang as the company’s CEO in accordance with this succession plan. Zhang will devote all of his attention to Alibaba Cloud, also known as Aliyun, the company’s cloud intelligence vertical, as soon as the succession plan is affected.
Zhang has been the CEO and chairman of the Alibaba Group since December. He is also the director of Alibaba’s cloud intelligence division. According to a business statement cited by Bloomberg, Zhang will be replaced and elevated to the post of chairman by Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai.
Given the significance of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group’s progress towards a full spin-off, now is the ideal time for me to make a change. To make the transition as smooth as possible, I look forward to cooperating closely with Joe and Eddie in the upcoming months, Zhang added.
Joseph Tsai remarked about Eddie that the latter played a key role in creating the business’s technology-based platforms. Eddie oversaw the development of Taobao and Tmall’s main monetization platforms, according to Tsai.
He said: “During Alibaba’s crucial phases of expansion, Eddie played a major role in architecting our technology platforms and directing our strategic direction as the chief technology officer of important businesses, including Taobao and Alipay. He oversaw the development of our own monetization system on Taobao and Tmall and was instrumental in the rollout of the Mobile Taobao App, which helped to transition our business into the mobile-first age. Eddie and I are going to work together to use technology and innovation to launch our next stage of growth.
Yongming Eddie Wu, one of Alibaba’s co-founders, has served as chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group since May of this year and is a member of the Alibaba Partnership. When the business started in 1999, Wu also served as the technology director.
From December 2005 until December 2007, he held the position of Alipay’s chief technical officer. In November, he was named the platform’s commercial director before being elevated to general manager. He was appointed Taobao’s chief technology officer in September 2008, and in October 2011, he was appointed president of Alibaba Group’s search, advertising, and mobile businesses.
From April 2015 to October 2021, Wu held the positions of chairman of Alibaba Health and director of Alibaba Health Information Technology Limited, respectively. From September 2014 to September 2019, he served as the board chairman of Alibaba Group’s special assistant.
He started a venture capital firm called Vision Plus Capital in August 2015 with a focus on investing in cutting-edge technologies, business services, and digital healthcare. June 1996 saw his graduation from Zhejiang University of Technology’s College of Information Engineering.
