Alibaba CEO resigns from Weibo board after stepping down from Didi

Shanghai, China, Jan 11 (EFE).- The CEO of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has resigned from the board of directors of social media platform Weibo just days after stepping down from the board of ride-hailing giant Didi.

In a statement issued to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late Monday, Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, said that Daniel Zhang will be replaced by Alibaba’s chief marketing officer Chris Tung.

Zhang had been a board member of Weibo since May 2014, when he succeeded Alibaba founder Jack Ma as the company’s CEO.

The social media platform did not give any reason for Zhang’s resignation, which occurs just 12 days after he stepped down from Didi, which also had not specified the reason for his departure.

Alibaba, which has for years been a symbol of the expansion of China’s e-commerce and digital sectors, has seen its relations with the authorities cool down in recent times.

At the end of 2020, Beijing at the last minute suspended the initial public offering of Alibaba’s fintech arm, Ant Group, which would have been the largest IPO in history, and thus began a campaign against the tech sector which has been extended to other sectors including education. EFE

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