According to China’s Fengpai Shimbun on the 21st, founder Ma Yun appeared at the headquarters of Alibaba’s cloud business in Hangzhou in the afternoon of the previous day. Ma Yun visited a cafe in the company with current Alibaba Chairman and CEO Jang Yong-hyun, who announced his resignation, took a walk inside the company, and greeted employees.
Ma Yun, who had been locked in by Chinese authorities, left China in October 2021. Once rumored to be missing, he returned home in March after traveling to Japan, the United States, and Australia. He was spotted at Alibaba’s headquarters about three months after returning home. Coincidentally, Alibaba carried out a large-scale reorganization after he returned home, which some analysts say was influenced by Jack Ma’s influence.
Some say that Ma Yun’s public activities at Alibaba’s headquarters suggest a return to management.
In particular, attention is drawn to the fact that it is the day when Alibaba’s management was replaced. Alibaba Group announced on the 20th that there has been a change in its top management through a notice saying, “We are heading for the future with a new look.”With the personnel reshuffle, Tsai Chung-shin, who founded Alibaba with Ma Yun, will serve as chairman of the board of directors, and Wu Yong-ming, one of the 18 co-founders, will take over as Alibaba’s CEO.
Tsai Chung-shin, who became chairman of the board of directors, is Alibaba’s “second-in-command” and is called Alibaba’s “eternal partner” in-house. Before joining Alibaba, Tsai Chung-shin had experience working at Investor AB Hong Kong branch, a Swedish investment company.Tsai Chung-shin gave up his high salary of 1 million yuan (about 160,000 dollars) and joined Alibaba, which receives only 500 yuan in monthly salary, leading the company’s growth by serving as chief financial officer (CFO) for 15 years, and stepped down in 2013.Wu Yongming is also one of Alibaba’s co-founders and has previously served as technical director in Alibaba’s major business areas, including B2B, Taobao and Zpubao. After stepping down from Alibaba’s management front in 2015, he established Yuanjing Capital and invested in companies such as Misfresh and DJI to succeed.Meanwhile, CEO Jang Yong, who appeared with Ma Yun the previous day, will serve as the head of Alibaba’s cloud business from September 10. “Alibaba is running toward the future after announcing business plans such as splitting its cloud division,” he said. “The development of core technologies such as cloud, big data, and AI will bring great changes to society and focus on representing the cloud business in the future.”
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
