Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall chief Dai steps away from roles at subsidiaries to focus on core e-commerce business: reports

The head of Alibaba Group Holding's e-commerce unit Taobao and Tmall Group, which provides 70 per cent of parent company revenue, has stepped away from multiple roles at Alibaba subsidiaries amid an ongoing business shake-up, according to local media reports and business registration information.

Trudy Dai Shan, an early aide to Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and who returned to the front line of Alibaba in 2022, no longer holds legal representative positions at Hangzhou Alimama Software Services Co and Taobao (China) Software Co among others, signalling that Dai will focus all her energy on Alibaba's core e-commerce engine.

Responding to an enquiry, Taobao and Tmall said the move was a common change of business registration at subsidiaries and has no impact at the group level.

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The reported changes come as Alibaba presses ahead with a sweeping restructuring announced in March that will see it split into six major groups, including Taobao and Tmall Group, cloud, local services, its global digital business, the logistics arm Cainiao and digital entertainment, in addition to a number of smaller business groups.

Under the restructuring, Dai's Taobao and Tmall Group will remain exclusively owned by Alibaba. Logistics unit Cainiao has become the first group to apply for a separate initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Alibaba's former chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang Yong has already stepped down from his former group positions and earlier this month surprised the market by resigning as CEO of the cloud business - Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Business Group.

Alibaba's new Group CEO Eddie Wu Yongming stepped up as acting chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence alongside his role as the chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group.

The return of Alibaba veterans to the front line amid the restructuring marks one of the biggest corporate reorganisations in Chinese corporate history.

Wu Zeming, former chief technology officer of Alibaba, will serve as the legal representative, executive director, and general manager of Hangzhou Alimama Software Services Co., a subsidiary for Alibaba's online advertising business, according to the local media reports.

Wang Hai, an Alibaba vice-president, will serve as the legal representative, chairman and general manager of Taobao (China) Software Co. and Zhejiang Tmall Technology Co. Liu Peng, another Alibaba vice-president, will serve as the legal representative, chairman, and general manager of Zhejiang Tmall Network Co.

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