Alibaba Revamps E-Commerce Businesses, Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

On Monday, Alibaba announced a reorganization of its international and domestic e-commerce businesses, as well as the appointment of a new chief financial officer.

The changes come as Alibaba faces multiple headwinds, including increased competition, a slowing economy, and regulatory scrutiny.

In order to become more agile and accelerate growth, Alibaba announced the formation of two new units to house its main e-commerce businesses, international digital commerce and China digital commerce.

Alibaba’s overseas consumer-facing and wholesale businesses will be housed in the international digital commerce unit, which will include AliExpress, Alibaba.com, and Lazada. Jiang Fan, the former president of the Taobao and Tmall marketplaces, will lead the unit.

According to the company, Alibaba will house its domestic commerce businesses in the China digital commerce unit, which will be led by Trudy Dai, a founding member of Alibaba.

Toby Xu, the company’s deputy chief financial officer, will succeed Maggie Wu as chief financial officer in April, the company said, describing his appointment as part of the company’s leadership succession plan.

Xu joined Alibaba three years ago from PWC and was named deputy CFO in July 2019.

Wu, who served as CFO for three Alibaba-related company public offerings, will remain an executive director on Alibaba’s board.

The e-commerce behemoth’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 8% in early morning trade, mirroring Friday’s declines in the United States. Shares of Chinese firms listed in the United States fell on fears of increased regulatory scrutiny at home, following Didi Global’s decision to delist from the New York Stock Exchange.

Last month, the company lowered its annual revenue growth forecast to the slowest rate since its 2014 stock market debut, and sales at its marquee event, online shopping festival Singles Day, grew at the slowest rate ever.