“Streamline operations and increase efficiency”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Wang Yulei is no longer president of Tmall, which is basically Alibaba’s version of Amazon. He will remain within the company though, but it is unclear which position he will fill.
Alibaba said in a statement that Jeff Zhang, former president of Taobao (Alibaba’s version of eBay), will become China Retail Marketplaces’ new president. Aside from Taobao and Tmall, the company has also placed Jujuasuan, a site specialized in group purchases, into the division.
The official word is that the new division was created to “streamline operations and increase efficiency”, but the American business paper believes the management changes are tied to its recent counterfeit scandal. The Chinese government has told Alibaba it has to improve its policies, after several million forged articles were discovered.
