Yu Yongfu to take over as CEO of Alibaba Pictures

Technology entrepreneur and financier Yu Yongfu is to take over as CEO of Alibaba Pictures, the film arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

He replaces Zhang Qiang, who remains a board level director and is re-designated as co-president, according to a company statement.

Yu, who is 40, joined Alibaba in 2014 after the e-commerce titan acquired the mobile internet and software service provider UCWeb, now Alibaba’s browser for smart phones, which he had headed.

The new head, who joined Alibaba Pictures as a non-executive director in August, said he plans to reshape the filmmaker to be an entity with a “Goldman Sachs-style” organisational culture, and a flat operational hierarchy, according to his open letter to company employees following the appointment.

In late October, he also became chairman and chief executive of newly formed Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group, reporting directly to Alibaba’s chief executive Daniel Zhang, according to company filings.

Prior to joining Alibaba, Yu spent six years from 2001 to 2006 as a vice president and associate with Legend Capital, the venture capital arm of Legend Holdings.

Ali Pictures, the only publicly listed company under Alibaba’s entertainment business, has been undergoing a major overhaul, including the incorporation of online ticketing platform Tao Piao Piao and a recent tie-up with Hollywood’s top-grossing Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners.