Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang quits Weibo role

E-commerce giant’s Chris Tung fills board seat at popular social media forum

Alibaba Group Holding chairman and chief executive Daniel Zhang Yong has resigned from the board of directors of Weibo, the microblogging platform operator said on Monday, days after he had left the board of ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing.

Zhang’s Weibo seat has been filled by Chris Tung Pen Hung, Alibaba’s chief marketing officer who joined the e-commerce giant in 2016, with effect from Monday. Alibaba, owner of the

South Post, is Weibo’s

China Morning second largest shareholder, holding a 29.6 per cent stake.

Known as China’s Twitter, Weibo completed a secondary listing in Hong Kong last month after going public on the Nasdaq in 2014.

Alibaba declined to comment.

Weibo is one of China’s most vibrant destinations for online discussions, where users exchange opinions on topics ranging from the latest news to celebrity gossip.

Recently when Lee Jinglei, the estranged wife of TaiwaneseAmerican heartthrob Wang Leehom, publicly accused her former husband of infidelity and emotional abuse, she chose to post on Weibo in addition to Instagram, which is blocked on the mainland.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Weibo has also become an increasingly important place for citizens to share vital information, such as which districts have been locked down for mandatory testing – often hours before local authorities release official information.

Weibo’s status as China’s online public square has drawn intense scrutiny from the government.

In June 2020, the Cybersecurity Administration of China ordered Weibo to suspend two functions related to trending topics for a week over the “dissemination of illegal information”, citing an incident involving a person surnamed Jiang.

This comes after Jiang Fan, the president of Alibaba e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall, was embroiled in a very public spat on Weibo between a woman believed to be his wife and a social media influencer.

Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant Alibaba has invested in more than 40 Chinese media companies between 2011 and 2022.

However, it has divested some of its media assets in recent months, including a roughly 5 per cent stake in Mango Excellent Media Co, a shopping and entertainment television network.

Zhang also recently left the board of Didi, according to a statement by the mobility technology company on December 29.