Wu Yongming, who also serves as the CEO of Taotian Group, has launched a bold organizational adjustment.
On December 22nd, Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group and Chairman and CEO of Taotian Group, released a letter from all members of Taotian Group, announcing the latest organizational decision of Taotian Group, with a fully youthful management team taking over. Six young managers were appointed to lead key businesses of Taotian Group and report directly to Wu Yongming. Wu Yongming also requested Taotian Group to face the current situation and start a new business.
Specifically, Wu Jia, born in 1985, will be responsible for the Taotian User Platform Business Unit and Alibaba Mama Business Unit. It is understood that Wu Jia joined Alibaba through school recruitment in 2010 and has accumulated rich experience in technology development, cultivating and incubating the popular product Quark among young people. Wu Jia will continue to serve as the President of Intelligent Information.
The current Chief Operating Officer of Ele.me, Chen Weiye (Chuduan), will be transferred to Taobao, responsible for the Taobao Business Unit, Taotian Merchant Platform Department, and Taotian Customer Satisfaction Department. He led the proposal of the brand value direction of Ele.me, which is "rest assured and arrive on time", and created a phenomenon level marketing strategy of "guessing answers without paying". He is also the founder of another idle trading and interest content platform favored by young people, Xianyu.
Liu Bo (Jialuo) will take over the Tmall business unit. For more than a decade, he has been on the front line of the Taobao Tmall business, with rich commercial practical experience, and has continuously created multiple strategic tracks. Wang Tingxiang (Shaoyou), born in 1987, will lead the fashion development department. Liu Yiman (Yiman), the former head of direct business, will be responsible for the M2C business unit. Cheng Daofang will lead the Taobao Live and Content Business Unit, responsible for promoting the construction and innovation of Taobao's content.
Alibaba stated that Wu Jia and Chu Duan were transferred from other business groups to Taotian New positions, and the job responsibilities of the other four managers have also undergone new changes, demonstrating Alibaba Group's unified command of strategic focus business and high-intensity talent investment.
In May of this year, Taotian Group underwent organizational restructuring and established three major industry development departments, each led by Qigong (Wang Hai), Aowen (Liu Peng), and Yiman (Liu Yiman), reporting to CEO Dai Shan. At the same time, Liu Bo (Jialuo) serves as the Alibaba Mom and Marketing PR President of Taotian Group, while Han Wenfei (Mushan) serves as the General Manager of Taotian Group's Marketing Department.
In the latest adjustment, Liu Bo, Liu Yiman, and Cheng Daofang are all elderly people on Taotian, but their positions have changed. Regarding the whereabouts of Liu Peng, Wang Hai, and others, an Alibaba insider told a reporter from Pengpai News, "There are other appointments available."
On December 20th, Alibaba announced that Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group and Chairman of Taotian Group, will also serve as CEO of Taotian Group. From now on, Wu Yongming will concurrently serve as CEO of Alibaba Group, Taotian Group, and Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group. Alibaba stated that this will help lead the transformation of Taotian through technological innovation, ensuring that the group focuses on core strategic e-commerce and cloud, forming a unified command and high-intensity continuous investment.
A person close to Alibaba told a reporter from Pengpai News that Taotian Group and Alibaba Cloud are still operating independently, and Wu Yongming's concurrent role is not intended to bring the cloud business and e-commerce sector under the group. At that time, the person also denied that Pinduoduo's market value exceeded Alibaba's, and there was a need for someone to be responsible for performance issues, which led to the aforementioned job changes. "Competitive pressure is not the main reason, this may have been some adjustment preparation in September or even earlier, and now it is time for the boots to land," the person said.
In the eyes of the outside world, this adjustment also implies an update of Alibaba's management team.
Alibaba's Chairman of the Board, Cai Chongxin, also stated in an employee letter, "Since Wu Yongming took over as CEO of Alibaba Group for three months, he has comprehensively promoted the reform of young management teams. Next, we will fully utilize young management teams that have been trained and emerged at the grassroots level, creating an innovative environment for young people."
In September of this year, Wu Yongming stated in a letter to all employees that within four years, the 85 and 90 generations will be the main managers to refresh the business management team, and create a mechanism and cultural environment for more young Alibaba people to become the core force of Alibaba.