By CHENG Lu
Eddie Wu, Alibaba Group’s new CEO and a founding member of the e-commerce giant, sent an open letter to Alibaba staff on Tuesday calling for the company to put customers first and to make more use of AI.
Wu said that Alibaba will increase investment and R&D in internet services, AI and the global business network.
The traditional internet model is saturated and homogenized, Wu wrote. Alibaba must find the key to unlocking the future and persist in its original mission of solving social problems, being a company that is beneficial to society.
Alibaba must now seek openness and cooperation with those traditionally seen as competitors. The company will freshen up independent decision-making and set goals for the age profile of the management team. Post-85s and post-90s stars are expected to take prominent places in the senior management firmament within four years.
Daniel Zhang recently stepped down as Alibaba supremo after 16 years of ups and downs. What came as a surprise was that Zhang also left Alibaba Cloud, after several years of ups and more ups. Wu is now occupying the hot seat in the Cloud.
No.4 employee of Alibaba, Wu is a semi-mythical figure in the e-commerce giant's legend. He started working with Jack Ma back in 1996 as Alibaba's first programmer. Whatever Alibaba actually is, it was basically built by Wu. Taobao and Alipay are both products of Wu's technical brilliance.
Joe Tsai, another founding father of Alibaba, is the new chairman of Alibaba. If Wu has his head in the Cloud, Tsai's feet are firmly on the ground tasked with steering Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics unit, down prosperity avenue.
