- Alibaba shook up its leadership and operations.
- CEO Eddie Wu now heads core commerce units.
- Trudy Dai will lead a new strategic investments division.
Alibaba’s Bid for Revival Through Leadership Shift
Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba unveiled sweeping leadership changes on Wednesday and plans to hive off its vast portfolio of global investments into a separate entity. The moves come as Alibaba strives to revive its fortunes after years of setbacks.
Alibaba said its CEO, Eddie Wu, will take over leadership of its core China online retail platforms from long-time executive Trudy Dai, one of the original partners alongside founder Jack Ma.
Trudy Dai to Lead the Strategic Investment Division
Dai will instead oversee the new investment management firm, which Alibaba said will steward its many assets beyond mainstay divisions like e-commerce and cloud services.
The surprise shakeup points to Alibaba’s desire to control underperforming units directly while exploring sales of non-essential businesses, analysts said. It also continues a year of volatility after Alibaba walked back plans to restructure itself into six parts.
Alibaba’s Playbook for Future Success
“Alibaba wants a light pack for battle with more focused competitors,” said analyst Li Chengdong. Rivals like TikTok parent ByteDance and upstart PDD Holdings have recently eclipsed Alibaba in scale and growth.
In an internal memo, Alibaba’s leadership emphasized the moves would empower a “new cohort” of managers to revive company fortunes after years of regulatory scrutiny in China eroded its dominance. The e-commerce leader has lost billions in market value since its peak.
