Alibaba restores fallen star Jiang Fan in partnership as e-commerce growth takes precedence

Name: Alibaba names co-founder Joe Tsai chairman, in surprise shake-up as Daniel Zhang steps down
Uploaded: 2023-07-24T11:00:12.000Z
Duration: 1 min 53 s
Description: Alibaba names co-founder Joe Tsai chairman, in surprise shake-up as Daniel Zhang steps down

Jiang, who lost his place in Alibaba’s influential partnership in April 2020 after an alleged extramarital affair, has been reinstated

The ‘post-80s’ executive is expected to help steer Alibaba’s e-commerce business through intensifying competition amid a sweeping group restructuring

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Jiang Fan, CEO of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group, has been reinstated as a member of the Alibaba partnership. Photo: Handout

Tracy Quin Shanghai

Published: 7:00pm, 24 Jul 2023

Jiang Fan, the 37-year-old CEO of Alibaba Group Holding’s international business unit, has cemented his status as one of the e-commerce giant’s most promising executives with his return as the youngest member of its partnership – a supreme corporate governance body with the right to nominate directors.

Jiang, the only Alibaba partner under 40, is widely regarded as the firm’s answer to other “post-80s” executives such as PDD Holdings founder Colin Huang Zheng. Jiang is set to take on bigger roles in the future, as Alibaba fights to defend its turf amid intensifying competition against PDD and JD.com, analysts said.

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Alibaba names co-founder Joe Tsai chairman, in surprise shake-up as Daniel Zhang steps down

Jiang was originally kicked out of the partnership in April 2020 after the firm launched an investigation into his alleged extramarital affair that turned into a major public relations crisis for Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.

At the time, a woman believed to be Jiang’s wife turned to Weibo to publicly warn a social media influencer not to “mess with” her husband. The debacle also led to the demotion of Jiang from his role as president of Alibaba’s domestic retail platforms Taobao and Tmall, the company’s largest cash cows.

Jiang stayed low for seven months before being appointed as head of the company’s overseas e-commerce operations in December 2020.

He was able to redeem himself in that role, delivering 29 per cent revenue growth in Alibaba’s international e-commerce business in the most recent March quarter, far exceeding the 2 per cent sales increase in the entire company.

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