Meet one of China’s most powerful businesswomen at the helm of e-commerce firm Lazada
Lucy Peng Lei, one of the 18 co-founders of Alibaba, has been tasked to lead Lazada’s efforts in driving online retail activity across Southeast Asia, a market of more than 600 million consumers
To find out how Alibaba Group Holding is pulling out all the stops to lead Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market, check out who is in command of its US$4 billion flagship enterprise in the region.
Lucy Peng Lei, one of the 18 co-founders of Alibaba and the former head at affiliate Ant Financial Services Group, was named last week as the new chief executive at Southeast Asian e-commerce company Lazada Group.
Her appointment followed Alibaba’s investment of an additional US$2 billion in Singapore-based Lazada, in which the Chinese e-commerce giant had previously poured US$2 billion to take an 83 per cent shareholding. Alibaba did not reveal its current stake.
For the 45-year-old Peng, who also serves as the executive chair at Ant Financial and chairwoman at Lazada, her mission is clear: accelerate Alibaba’s expansion in the region.
Chinese technology companies see a huge new market in Southeast Asia. It consists of 11 countries with a total population of 653.4 million, about 49 per cent of whom live in urban areas, according to the latest United Nations estimates.