Alibaba reorganises eCommerce biz to form 2 new units

Alibaba has reorganised its international and domestic commerce platforms into two units to better drive synergies - international digital commerce and China digital commerce. International digital commerce will bring together Alibaba’s overseas consumer-facing and wholesale businesses under the leadership of Fan Jiang, president of Taobao and Tmall. It will include AliExpress, Alibaba.com, and Lazada.

According to Alibaba, these businesses propel its globalisation strategy and the newly-created unit is in line with Alibaba's goal of serving two billion consumers globally. In its last quarterly earnings, the company said it had reached 285 million annual active consumers overseas.

Fan joined Alibaba in 2013 and in his previously role, Alibaba said Taobao and Tmall have transformed into a mobile-first commerce ecosystem with an innovative user experience, such as personalisation and content-driven engagement. Before joining Alibaba, Jiang founded and served as CEO for leading mobile analytics solutions company Umeng.

Meanwhile, China digital commerce combines Alibaba's China consumer-facing and wholesale marketplaces under the leadership of Trudy Dai, president of industrial eCommerce and community eCommerce. She is also a member of Alibaba's founding team. The combination of all domestic commerce businesses aims to foster more collaboration and synergy across business units to serve its consumers and customers better.

Dai has served various leadership roles within the company over the years. She has strong expertise across the China consumption sector, a keen understanding of consumer needs and deep knowledge of the Alibaba ecosystem. Between 2014 and 2017, Dai was Alibaba’s chief customer officer, and prior to that, led different business units and critical corporate functions. Since January 2017, she has served as president of Alibaba’s industrial eCommerce, including Alibaba.com, 1688.com, AliExpress and Taobao Deals. In March 2021, she became president of Alibaba’s community marketplace Taocaicai.

Under Dai’s leadership, the company said Taocaicai and Taobao Deals have seen exponential growth, tapping into consumer demand from lower-tier cities. In the September quarter of 2021, annual active consumers on Taobao Deals grew to more than 240 million, while Taocaicai’s GMV saw an over 150% quarter-over-quarter increase.

"We will continue to focus on becoming a truly globalised company, and we believe that overseas markets present many exciting potential and opportunities for us to capture. We have confidence in our local teams, and we are charting a path forward with a holistic strategic blueprint and organisational stability for winning our overseas markets," Zhang said.

At the same time, Alibaba also appointed Toby Xu as CFO, succeeding Maggie Wu, effective 1 April 2022. Wu will continue as a partner in the Alibaba Partnership and serve as an executive director on the Alibaba board. Xu joined Alibaba in July 2018 and was named deputy CFO the next year. Before Alibaba Group, he was partner at PwC for 11 years. He also serves as a director of Sun Art Retail Group, Lianhua Supermarket Holdings, and Red Star Macalline Group.

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