A 203-word letter announced the change of Taotian executives

Produced by Tiger Sniff Commercial Consumer Group

Author|Miao Zhengqing

IC photo

48 hours after Wu Yongming became the CEO of Taotian, he used a 203-word "Letter to All Employees of Taotian Group" to announce the change of Taotian.

On December 22, Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group and CEO of Taotian Group, announced the adjustment of Taotian's senior personnel and organizational structure in the form of a letter from all employees. From the perspective of the intensity of change, this is the largest change in Taotian in the past two years. From the perspective of senior management changes, a total of six former Taotian executives were rotated and left their original Taotian positions this time. From the perspective of organizational structure, the previous model of "Taobao Tmall Open + Five Development Centers" has undergone key changes.

Let's start with the organizational changes. In April 2023, after Taotian divided its customers into three categories according to industry characteristics and other factors and established three industry development departments, Taotian's operation mode is based on five development centers: SME Development Center (the person in charge is Qigong), Brand Merchant Development Center (the person in charge is Aowen), Supermarket Business Development Center (the person in charge is Yiman), Platform Strategy Center (the person in charge is Sihan) and the User Operation Center (the person in charge is Xuande)

Among the five development centers, three industry development departments are considered the top priority, because all of Taotian's customers are subdivided into these three industry development centers. In addition to the five centers, Taotian also has some key independent sectors, and its No. 1 position also reports directly to Dai Shan, the CEO of Taotian at the time, the most typical ones are Alimama (the person in charge is Jia Luo) and Taobao Live (the person in charge is Daofang). Alimama is regarded as Taotian's "money bag", and Taobao Live is regarded as Taotian's "engine of content-based strategy".

Previously, the five major development centers and key independent sectors

Five Development Centers:

1. Small and medium-sized enterprise development center (the person in charge is Qigong): including small and medium-sized businesses related business, which focuses on promoting the small King Kong industry (trendy toys, pets, sports and outdoor, jewelry and other vertical categories with high potential growth) and supporting small and medium-sized Taobao stores

2. Brand Merchant Development Center (the person in charge is Aowen): including Tmall clothing, fast-moving consumer goods, consumer electronics, mobile Tmall, Tmall Global and other businesses

3. Supermarket Business Development Center (the person in charge is Yiman): including Tmall Supermarket, Taocaicai, Taoxianda, Food Fresh and other businesses

4. Platform Strategy Center (the person in charge is Sihan): the strategy formulation of key elements such as the overall strategy of the platform, the prediction of key opportunities and directions, and the overall traffic of the platform

5. User operation center (the person in charge is Xuande): focus on user service, user growth, and upgrade the user experience

Some of the key stand-alone sectors:

1. Alimama (the person in charge is Jia Luo): It is regarded as a money bag of Taotian, providing merchants with various tools related to marketing, users, private domains and other links

2. Taobao Live (the person in charge is Daofang): It is regarded as the engine of the content strategy, and in addition to live broadcasts, it also involves short videos and other content forms

The five major development centers and key independent sectors have formed the foundation of Taotian in the past year, and the number one position in these departments is Dai Shan's direct subordinate (i.e., "Dai Shan's D" in the Ali system). It is worth noting that the foundation of the operation of this organizational system is based on a key underlying logic: the connection between Taobao and Tmall. At the beginning of 2022, shortly after Dai Shan took office, she announced the integration of Taotian. Since then, the operation of Taotian system in the past two years has been based on this basic strategy.

Under the new structure announced by Wu Yongming on the 22nd, the past organizational system has undergone an important upgrade.

First of all, Taobao and Tmall have set up separate business divisions. Secondly, the original three major industry development centers only retained the "supermarket business development center", but the connotation and name were changed, and it was changed to M2C business department (Manufacturers to Consumer, the factory directly connects to consumers). Third, the weight of the clothing track has risen significantly, and a separate department responsible for clothing development has been established, and the clothing track is one of the key basic tracks for the start of the Tao system, and in the past two years, this track is also an area that new e-commerce players are eager to try. Fourth, the original user application center and some functions of the platform strategy center were merged to form the user platform business department.

It is worth noting that Wu Yongming coordinates these business divisions through 6 direct subordinates. Compared with the original structure, the obvious characteristics of the new system are: fewer people and fewer departments.

The 6 Wu Yongming's D's and the new division of labor are as follows:

1. Wu Jia (born in 1985, newly transferred): responsible for the user platform business department and Alimama business department

2. Chen Weiye (born in 1982, newly transferred, nickname: Division): responsible for Taobao Division, Taotian Merchant Platform Department, and Taotian Customer Satisfaction Department

3. Jia Luo (born in 1980, former head of Alimama): responsible for the Tmall business department

4. Yiman (former head of supermarket business development center): responsible for M2C division

5. Shaoyou (born in 1987, formerly the person in charge of Taotian shopping): responsible for the clothing development department

6. Daofang (born in 1983, former person in charge of Taobao Live): responsible for Taobao Live and Content Division

Wu Yongming's employment is another key point in this change.

After taking over the position of CEO of Taotian, Wu Yongming announced that he would promote "youth" in the Taotian system next. This can be seen from the selection of six core executives.

A person familiar with the matter told Tiger Sniff that the new team is more than 10 years younger than the total age of the "previous session", and this is the first time in Taotian's history that the post-80s senior management group is absolutely dominant.

Among the new team, Wu Jia and Chen Weiye are Wu Yongming's cadres transferred from other parts of the group.

Wu Jia was previously the president of Ali's intelligent information business group, and his most famous exploit was to lead the team to incubate quark. This year, Quark was listed by Wu Yongming as one of Ali's Four Little Tigers. Wu Jia is a "youth training member" of Alibaba, and joined the Ali system after graduating from Zhejiang University. He has worked in Alibaba's UC system for a long time, and is a typical technical background.

A person familiar with Ali told Tiger Sniff that Wu Jia was once the youngest M5 in the group, and he belonged to one of the few post-85 executives in the group who had both technical and management capabilities, and was pinned on by Ali's senior management. "The transfer of Wu Jia to Taotian can be regarded as Ali taking out the key reserves of his post-85 talents, and it also shows that the senior management has high expectations for Taotian's business. ”

After joining Taotian, Wu Jiahui continued to serve as the president of Ali's intelligent information business group. And Wu Jia's business in Taotian is also very noteworthy, Ali Mama is not only Taotian's money bag, but also founded by Wu Yongming himself, Wu Yongming himself has been at the helm of Ali Mama for a long time. In fact, Wu Jia is responsible for the volume of three centers in Taotian, which is not difficult to see the trust and high hopes of the senior management for Wu Jia.

Chen Weiye (pseudonym) is another Taotian executive who has been transferred, after he was the chief operating officer of Ele.me and the head of Ele.me's retail business in the same city. In fact, Chen Weiye has a lot of connections with the Tao department, he is the founder of Xianyu, one of the four dragons of Ali today, and is regarded as an executive who is very familiar with young users. Chen Weiye is regarded as a talent with pioneering ability, and within Alibaba, he has repeatedly led the team to make achievements in "the state of limited resources and supplies". In Ele.me, one of Chen Weiye's more famous feats is the marketing game of "guess the answer for free", and the latest quarterly financial report shows that the orders of the local life group increased by 20% year-on-year.

The four "old team" members left behind also have their own characteristics. Quite typical is Shaoyou, who is currently the youngest person among Taotian executives. It is worth noting that Shaoyou was just promoted to Dai Shan's D in December, and Wu Yongming continued to entrust Shaoyou with important responsibilities after taking over as CEO of Taotian, putting him in charge of the newly established clothing development department.

"For the young talents cultivated by the Tao Department, Wu Ma continues to reuse. In the past few months, Wu Ma has often participated in Taotian's business meetings, and she is actually very familiar with these people, and this personnel change is also the answer given by Wu Ma after observing a few months of in-depth thinking about Taotian's senior management lineup. A person close to Taotian's top management said.

At present, the youngest "senior management team" in the history of the Tao Department has taken over the core business segment of Alibaba. In front of them is a fierce market, and whether they can lead Taotian to change their way of life will be the key question that Wu Yongming and his new core team need to answer.