WebProNews

Tag: Daniel Zhang

  • Alibaba Reshuffles Execs, CEO Takes Over Cloud Unit

    Alibaba Reshuffles Execs, CEO Takes Over Cloud Unit

    Alibaba has undergone a major reorganization of its executives, with the CEO taking over as head of the company’s cloud unit.

    Unlike many companies, Alibaba has a system in place to rotate its executives, courtesy of former CEO Jack Ma. The system is designed to keep Alibaba nimble and prevent it from stagnating in a fast-moving industry.

    As part of its latest shuffle, CEO Daniel Zhang “will assume the role of acting President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence and responsibility for the communication and collaboration platform DingTalk.”

    The previous head of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, Jeff Zhang, will focus on his role head of Alibaba DAMO Academy, as well as T-Head, Alibaba’s proprietary chip development team. He will also continue leading the company’s Internet of Things (IoT) efforts.

    “Over the past four years, Jeff has led the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence team to deliver outstanding results in technological innovation and industry influence,” said Daniel in an internal email to staff.

    “As the country enters a new stage of living with Covid and policymakers have given direction to the future development of the platform economy, we are more confident than ever that continued development is the key to solving the challenges we face today,” Daniel continued in the email.

  • Alibaba Buys Top China Hypermarket In War With Walmart

    Alibaba Buys Top China Hypermarket In War With Walmart

    Alibaba today announced it will invest $3.6 billion in Sun Art Retail Group, a huge hypermarket and supermarket operator in China. Sun Art is the largest retailer in China and competes head to head with Walmart. The transaction will give Alibaba a 72% controlling interest in the China-based brick and mortar retailer. Alibaba says that this purchase furthers its ‘New Retail’ strategy of integrating online and offline retail in China.

    “Alibaba’s strategic investment in Sun Art in 2017 was an important step in our New Retail strategy,” says Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang. “The alliance we formed with Auchan Retail and Ruentex was instrumental in building a robust infrastructure to create opportunities and value in China’s retail sector. Led by Chief Executive Officer Peter Huang, Sun Art has achieved impressive results in its digitalization and pursued promising synergies with businesses across the Alibaba digital economy. As the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the digitalization of consumer lifestyles and enterprise operations, this commitment to Sun Art serves to strengthen our New Retail vision and serve more consumers with a fully integrated experience.”

    In 2017 Alibaba entered into a strategic alliance to digitalize and introduce New Retail solutions at Sun Art stores. The company says that since then “Sun Art has made significant progress in the digital transformation under a fast-changing market environment by leveraging resources and technology from the Alibaba ecosystem, to capitalize on the growth opportunities in China’s hypermarket and supermarket space.”

    This acquisition reflects a growing retail trend in China. Euromonitor International said in a report earlier this year that merger and acquisition activities are expected to continue in the forecast period. As China’s retailing industry modernizes it is undergoing a drastic digital transformation. The forecasting firm also said that sun Art held a 14.1% share of the country’s hypermarket sales last year. That compares to Walmart’s 10.3% market share in that category.

    As of June 30, 2020, Sun Art operates 481 hypermarkets and 3 mid-size supermarkets in China, with a focus on strengthening its position through small and offline community stores.

    Here is the official joint announcement of the acquisition.

  • Alibaba CEO: On-Demand Delivery to Power the Future of Retail

    Alibaba CEO: On-Demand Delivery to Power the Future of Retail

    On-demand is an infrastructure for the future of retail says Alibaba CEO, Daniel Zhang. He envisions a world where virtually every product, even pharmaceuticals, will be available to be delivered on-demand 24-hours a day to customers.

    Daniel Zhang, Alibaba CEO, discussed the future of retail on CNBC International:

    On-Demand Delivery to Power the Future of Retail

    On-demand delivery is an infrastructure not only for the food delivery business. This is also an infrastructure for the future of retail. In terms of food delivery, I think today more and more young people need these services and they either don’t have time to cook or they simply don’t don’t cook so the people need this food delivery.

    When we look at this on-demand delivery network this also can serve many other product categories. For example, people can order some medicine from some pharmacies at night if they catch a cold. This could be an infrastructure for the future of integrated digital business.

    Every Business Will be Powered by Cloud

    Cloud computing is our long-term strategy and we strongly believe that every business in the future will be powered by cloud. We are very happy to build this crowd infrastructure in the new digital era and support all the business to go digital. I think cloud will be the main business of Alibaba in the future.

    Voice is the Next Entry Point of the Internet

    We believe that voice is the next entry point of the Internet. If you look at the history of the Internet we have the PC times and people got into the internet by clicking. Then you have the mobile internet where people go to the internet by scrolling the screen. Now it comes to the voice age where people can go to the virtual world by our voice.

    That’s why we started to work on Tmall Genie and we strongly believe this could be an entry point in the living room when people want to go to the virtual world. This is also how people not only enjoy the services by the voice but also can monitor the equipment and the facilities in the home.

    About Tmall Genie

  • About Daniel Zhang, The New CEO Of Alibaba Group

    About Daniel Zhang, The New CEO Of Alibaba Group

    Alibaba managed to take the title for the largest global IPO ever in September, and the company is about to be under new (yet familiar) leadership .

    Alibaba reported its March 2015 and fiscal year 2015 financial results on Thursday while also announcing that COO Daniel Zhang will become CEO of Alibaba Group starting May 10. He will replace Jonathan Lu, who will reaamin on the board of directors as Vice Chairman, and will work with Zhang through a transition period over the coming months.

    “I’m excited to take on this new challenge,” said Zhang. “It is an immense responsibility, and I’m grateful to every member of the Alibaba team for their commitment and dedication to excellence.”

    “I’m proud of the Alibaba team and all that we have accomplished together,” added Lu. “Over many years, I have seen just how critical Alibaba’s culture and talent are to our success, and I’m excited to take on this new role helping to develop the next generation of leaders at our company.”

    Executive Chairman Jack Ma said, “Daniel is a proven international business leader and innovator with a strong track record of delivering results. He has the confidence of our entire management team, and there is no better person to lead Alibaba Group as we embark on the next stage of our growth on top of the strong foundation that Jonathan helped build. I am grateful to Jonathan Lu for his excellent leadership and management over the past several years, and I look forward to his continued contribution as a key leader in helping Alibaba Group train and develop the next generation of leaders. Alibaba Group has a strong and deep bench of talented executives who will help lead the company for the years to come. Today’s announcement reflects our commitment to continuing to develop strong leadership from within.”

    Who is Daniel Zhang?

    Zhang has been with the company for eight years, holding different top management positions in that time. He’s one of the founding members of the Alibaba partnership, and has been COO since September 2013. In this role, he oversaw the operations of all Alibaba Group business in China as well as internationally.

    Zhang joined Alibaba as CFO of Taobao Marketplace in 2007. The following year he was appointed COO of Taobao Marketplace and GM of Taobao Mall. According to Alibaba, Taobao Mall “rapidly” became one of the company’s most important businesses under his leadership. In 2011, he was named president when it became an independent business unit, Tmall.com, which the company refers to as “one of the world’s largest online B2C platforms.”

    The company says he was also a “key architect” of the November 11 Shopping Festival, and led it to what it calls the world’s largest online shopping event.

    Before joining Alibaba Group, Zhang was CFO of Shanda Interactive Entertainment, an online game developer and operator. Before that, he was senior manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Audit and Business Advisory Division in Shanghai. Before that he worked in the Shanghai office of Arthur Andersen for seven years.

    He received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and is a member of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He also serves on the boards of directors of CITIC 21 and Haier. Both of these are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In addition to those seats, he’s been serving on the board of directors of Weibo for about a year.

    Alibaba beat Wall Street expectations on its earnings report with quarterly sales of $2.8 billion (up 45%) and adjusted earnings per share of $0.43.

    Image via Alibaba