{"id":14613,"date":"2018-09-10T23:26:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T23:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14613"},"modified":"2018-09-10T23:26:57","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T23:26:57","slug":"meet-alibabas-next-chairman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14613","title":{"rendered":"Meet Alibaba’s next chairman"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Daniel\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Daniel Zhang has a tough act to follow.<\/h2>\n

The Alibaba CEO will inherit the role of chairman<\/a> next year from Jack Ma, the flamboyant Chinese entrepreneur who built the $420 billion internet business from scratch. <\/p>\n

Replacing China’s best known tech tycoon<\/a> at the top of the country’s largest company by market value will push Zhang center stage. But the executive, who has worked for Alibaba<\/span> (BABA<\/a><\/span>)<\/span> for more than a decade, <\/strong>is considered a safe pair of hands. <\/p>\n

“Daniel has been instrumental in bringing Alibaba to its current scale,” said John Choi, the head of China internet research at investment bank Daiwa Capital Markets. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He created the world’s biggest shopping bonanza<\/h2>\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Before becoming CEO in 2015<\/a>, Zhang spent much of his career at Alibaba in the group’s <\/strong>core online shopping business. <\/p>\n

Alibaba describes him as “the key architect” of Singles Day<\/a>, an event that started as an attempt to boost sales and <\/strong>grew into the world’s biggest shopping day. <\/p>\n

The frenzy of online spending, which takes place on November 11, generates bigger sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. Last year, it topped $25 billion. <\/p>\n

\"01
Daniel Zhang is credited with turning Singles Day into the world’s biggest shopping extravaganza.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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He likes to keep his feet on the ground<\/h2>\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Zhang’s promotion is likely to mean continuity in business, but it will bring a change in leadership style. <\/p>\n

Ma, 54, made a name for himself as an entertainer, dressing up as Michael Jackson<\/a> and a punk rocker to perform at company events. He even starred in a short kung fu movie. <\/p>\n

Zhang has kept a much lower profile. <\/p>\n

“He’s mild mannered, he’s more Clark Kent, and Jack’s the Superman,” said Duncan Clark, the author of “Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built.” <\/p>\n

Zhang has admitted as much himself. “Jack Ma is a guy with many ideas. He is very, very creative,” Zhang said<\/a> in an interview with the Financial Times last year. “But I’m the guy who always wants to put my foot on the ground.” <\/p>\n

At 46, the younger executive is still willing to experiment, though. “He has the guts to innovate and test creative business models,” Ma wrote in his letter Monday announcing the succession plan. <\/p>\n

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\"Chinese\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He quit gaming for e-commerce <\/h2>\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Zhang arrived at Alibaba in 2007 as the finance chief of the company’s Taobao Marketplace, which he helped develop into one of the group’s top businesses. <\/p>\n

He came from Shanda Interactive Entertainment<\/a>, a leading Chinese developer of online games that was listed on the Nasdaq. <\/p>\n

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Jack Ma and Daniel Zhang in 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His decision to quit the rapidly growing gaming industry followed an hour-long chat with Ma at Alibaba’s headquarters in the eastern city of Hangzhou. <\/p>\n

“The reason is because I think e-commerce has a bright future and it’s just at the beginning,” Zhang told<\/a> Alibaba’s news site last year. He said he preferred it to the gaming business because it’s “more relevant to the people’s daily life.” <\/p>\n

— Sherisse Pham contributed to this article.<\/i> <\/p>\n

CNNMoney (Hong Kong) <\/span> First published September 10, 2018: 8:16 AM ET<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Zhang has a tough act to follow. The Alibaba CEO will inherit the role of chairman next year from Jack Ma, the flamboyant Chinese entrepreneur who built the $420 billion internet business from scratch. Replacing China’s best known tech tycoon at the top of the country’s largest company by market value will push Zhang…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}