The youngest "Eighteen Arhats", Alibaba's new CEO
Alibaba full of crisis,
It is facing fierce competition in the AI era.
Author: Yin Jie
This year's Teachers' Day is a day for Alibaba.
On September 10, its previous head, Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Holding Group, stepped down and a new head took over -
Cai Chongxin became the chairman of the board of directors and Wu Yongming became the CEO.
For the former, everyone is familiar with it, and for the latter, everyone asks:
"Who is Wu Yongming?"
The youngest "eighteen arhats"
According to public information, Wu Yongming, 47 years old this year, graduated from the computer science department of Zhejiang University of Technology in 1996 and immediately joined the "China Yellow Pages" company founded by Jack Ma.
A year later, Wu Yongming followed Ma Yun into Beijing and was responsible for the technical development of the website of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation at that time. In 1999, he returned to Hangzhou with Jack Ma and founded Alibaba.
Before becoming CEO, Wu Yongming's brightest label was one of Alibaba's "eighteen arhats", and he was the youngest.
In that popular story, in 1999, Ma Yun, who had failed to start a business in Beijing, returned to Hangzhou and gathered 18 entrepreneurial partners in his home to plan a comeback.
He first pulled out his own money, saying that "the start-up capital must be idle money, and you are not allowed to borrow from family and friends, because the possibility of failure is very high", and then he said, "Now everyone keeps a little money for food and takes out all the rest of the money."
· Alibaba's "Eighteen Arhats" in its early days.
In addition to Jack Ma, the 18 partners include both Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming, who were both the founders and earliest employees of Alibaba, and Wu Yongming, the company's first generation of programmers.
At Ali, Wu Yongming's nickname is "Eastern Evil," but according to employees, he has a gentle personality, soft-spoken and introverted, and at the same time has a great sense of humor.
This may be verified by Wu Yongming's other nickname - "Wu Ma".
It is said that when he followed Ma Yun north, each staff dormitory arranged a person in charge, who was jokingly called "Ma" by everyone, and Wu Yongming was called "Wu Ma", and has been used ever since.
Being the youngest "Luohan" is inseparable from Ma Yun's promotion, and also thanks to Wu Yongming's choice, in other words, the two are sympathetic to each other.
At the beginning of the "China Yellow Pages", Ma Yun was an unknown resigned teacher, and in order to recruit talent, he hung a programmer job posting in the Qianjiang Evening News.
At that time, Wu Yongming, who had just graduated from college, was worried about his first job.
During the interview, Wu Yongming carried a floppy disk with several Java applets he had written. Ma Yun thinks this young man is good, understands technology, and has an eye for the future of the Internet.
Wu Yongming also returned the favor to Jack Ma, and despite the failure of starting a business in Beijing, he still did not give up, using his professional background to provoke the technical beam and build the technical architecture of the Alibaba platform.
Wu Yongming was the technical director of Taobao.
In 2003, Taobao was launched, and Wu Yongming was one of the seven "generals" of Jack Ma and served as the technical director of the website; In 2004, Alipay was established, and he became the technical director of Alipay; In September 2008, Taobao merged with Alibaba, and Wu Yongming was appointed vice president of the new company.
It can be said that in the years of Taobao's rapid rise, Wu Yongming not only participated in the whole process, but also was one of the main promoters.
"Not much to say, very moral"
Although Wu's KPIs are good, Tsai's credentials and prestige are clearly much higher than those of him — Alibaba has only two permanent partners, Jack Ma and Tsai.
But why is it that Wu Yongming, who was not known before, became the CEO?
According to industry insiders, in addition to the age advantage, Wu Yongming's ability in business operation is also a reason. In short, he not only understands technology, but also how to turn technology into products and monetize revenue.
Before the popularization of the mobile Internet, Wu Yongming realized the general trend of mobility early on, and actively promoted Alibaba's products to the mobile terminal of mobile phones.
In 2008, the mobile phone Taobao began internal testing, and within 3 years released Android, Symbian, Kjava versions, before the outbreak of the mobile Internet into the consumer vision.
In the following years, Wu Yongming gradually turned to the acquisition business, participating in the acquisition of AutoNavi Map, UC Browser, Umeng and other projects.
UC Browser has brought a very large traffic entrance to Alibaba, Amap's expansion of consumption positions, and Umeng's ability to bring mobile data-related services.
Wu Yongming once said: "In the era of rapid change, there is no business to keep, development needs to be in line with the times, and new entrepreneurship must be carried out at any time. ”
Perhaps it is precisely because of this concept that in 2015, in the tide of entrepreneurial innovation, Wu Yongming faded out of Alibaba, joined the venture capital circle, and established Yuanjing Capital.
Wu Yongming at Yuanjing Capital.
Thanks to the founder's abundant resource accumulation, Yuanjing has gained a firm foothold in the VC circle in a short period of time.
People who have cooperated with Yuanjing Capital revealed that Wu Yongming "doesn't talk much, he is very moral", his investment style is also relatively bold, he dares to try new things, and his investment fields involve cutting-edge technology, medical care, industry, etc., and there are currently more than 150 investment projects.
At the same time, Wu Yongming is still inextricably linked to Alibaba, and he served as chairman of Alibaba Health for 5 years from 2015 to 2020.
Wu Yongming when he was chairman of Ali Health.
The fierce competition in the Internet industry is well known, and yesterday's glory, today's decline, tomorrow's death often go hand in hand. This has kept Alibaba's founders feeling a sense of crisis.
According to media disclosures, in May this year, Ma Yun convened the heads of various businesses of Taobao Tmall Group to hold a small-scale communication meeting.
Ma Yun believes that Alibaba's past successful methodologies may not be applicable and should be quickly changed. He pointed out three directions for Taotian Group: return to Taobao, return to users, and return to the Internet.
In the subsequent restructuring of Alibaba's organizational structure, Wu Yongming joined Taobao Tmall Group as chairman.
"Let the post-85s and post-90s be the main managers"
On September 12, Wu Yongming issued an all-staff letter for the first time as CEO, clarifying the group's two strategic priorities in the future - user-first and AI-driven.
In the letter, Wu Yongming made it clear that the biggest variable in the next decade is undoubtedly the profound changes brought about by AI in the entire industry, so Ali must have the determination to start a business again, "If we can't keep up with the changes in the AI era, there will be new species that will replace us."
At the same time, he also put forward the requirements for the rejuvenation of the management team, "within 4 years, the post-85s and post-90s will be the main managers."
It can be seen that the new boss has a heart for change.
· All staff letter issued by Wu Yongming.
Some analysts believe that the return of Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming to the core management means the return of Alibaba's founder group, and in the face of its own business scale expansion and changes in the market competition environment, Ali needs the founder group to return to the front line and stabilize the development situation.
At the internal communication meeting in May, Ma Yun used Kodak and Nokia as examples, saying that "half a year to one year is enough for an enterprise from industry benchmark to death, and in the Internet industry, this speed may be faster."
Jack Ma, who is full of crisis, obviously believes that the current competitive situation facing Alibaba is very serious, and the only way out is to find new businesses and "find the spirit of innovation".
In this case, Wu Yongming, who is young and strong, good at investment and good at coordinating the relationship between all parties, has naturally become the best candidate for Ali's new head.
Director system: Lv Hong
Producer: Zhang Jiankui
Editor-in-chief: Xu Chenjing
Editor: Ling Yun
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