One of the most popular Chinese entrepreneurs Jack Ma has today bowed out of Alibaba Group and is replaced by a new CEO.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited is a Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Its worth is estimated at a tune of $460 billion.
The new handpicked Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang is an accountant by trade, soft-spoken and a contrast to Jack Ma a former English teacher.
Jack Ma has thrown a huge farewell party at the 80,000-capacity Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center stadium to the accompaniment of music and celebrity performances, attendees will be hoping to get clues on how Alibaba will be run under his heir Daniel Zhang.
While announcing his replacement in 2018, Jack Ma said that Zhang, “has the logic and critical thinking skills of a super computer, a commitment to his vision, the courage to wholeheartedly dare to take on innovative business models and industries of the future.”
The changes at Alibaba come at a time; the market for its core e-commerce business has slowed sharply.
Analysts say that one of Zhang’s major challenges will be finding new areas of growth as China’s e-commerce sector matures.
Last week, Alibaba announced investments of $2.7 billion in luxury goods retail platform Kaola and a music streaming firm in moves that partly demonstrated its flexibility in adopting new strategies.
China’s online retail sales grew just 17.8% in the first half of 2019, almost halving from the 32.4 % growth of the prior year, according to the national statistics office.
The Express News
