Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang quits Weibo board amid government scrutiny on Big Tech
- The Weibo board seat of Alibaba chairman Daniel Zhang Yong has been filled by Alibaba chief marketing officer Chris Tung Pen Hung
- Weibo, a popular social media forum, has drawn government scrutiny over its management of online discussions
Alibaba Group Holding chairman and chief executive Daniel Zhang Yong has resigned from the board of directors of Weibo, the microblogging platform operator announced on Monday, days after Zhang left the board of ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing.
Zhang’s Weibo seat has been filled by Chris Tung Pen Hung, Alibaba’s chief marketing officer who joined the e-commerce giant in 2016, with effect Monday.
Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, is Weibo’s second largest shareholder, holding a 29.6 per cent stake. Known as China’s Twitter, Weibo completed a secondary listing in Hong Kong last month after going public on the Nasdaq in 2014.
Alibaba declined to comment.
Weibo is one of China’s most vibrant destinations for online discussions, where users exchange opinions on topics ranging from the latest news to celebrity gossip.
Recently when Lee Jinglei, the estranged wife of Taiwanese-American heartthrob Wang Leehom, publicly accused her former husband of infidelity and emotional abuse, she chose to post on Weibo in addition to Instagram, which is blocked in mainland China.