By Casey Hall
BEIJING (Reuters) – Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu will take over as chief executive of Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba’s domestic e-commerce arm, effective immediately, the company said on Wednesday.
Wu, who has been Group CEO since September, also took over from previous head Daniel Zhang as the company’s cloud business CEO that month. The latest appointment means Wu now leads the overall group as well as its two most important business divisions – cloud and domestic e-commerce.
Trudy Dai, previously the Taobao and Tmall Group CEO, would shift roles to assist in the establishment of a new asset management company “as part of ongoing efforts to improve return on capital,” according to an internal company letter seen by Reuters and signed by Joseph Tsai, an Alibaba co-founder who took over as group chairman from Zhang in September.
An Alibaba spokesperson confirmed plans to set up a new asset management company but did not respond to a request for comment on Dai’s involvement.
(Reporting by Casey Hall; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
