Alibaba promotes millennials to key e-commerce leadership roles as it repositions to fend off rivals

The company’s Taobao and Tmall Group has promoted six young executives to lead key departments in a sweeping reshuffle after Eddie Wu Yongming replaced Trudy Dai Shan as the CEO of the unit, according to an internal letter seen by the Post about the appointments made on Friday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The promotions come as Alibaba’s bread-and-butter e-commerce business, which contributes to the bulk of its earnings, is in critical need of a revamp to win back young consumers from more budget-focused platforms.

Wu Jia, 38, was appointed to take charge of improving user experience at Taobao and Tmall thanks to his track record running Quark, transforming it from an obscure app into a popular search and online storage tool for young Chinese netizens. The business turned out to be so promising that Eddie Wu named Quark as one of the company’s four “strategic innovation businesses”.

Chen Weiye, a former executive at food delivery unit Ele.me, has been appointed to run Taobao, while Liu Bo was appointed to oversee Tmall. Cheng Daofang is the new head of live-streaming e-commerce and content.

Liu Yiman, the only woman among the new appointees, will manage the merchant-to-consumer business. Wang Tingxiang, the youngest of the group at 36 years old, will lead fashion and apparel development.

Many of the appointees have a background in technology, with experience creating new products that cater to younger users. Chen, for example, was the founder of Xianyu, a popular online flea market owned by Alibaba.

Upon announcing the reshuffle, Eddie Wu encouraged the staff to “reignite their entrepreneurial spirit” in order to “secure and win their future”.