Alibaba's Daniel Zhang quits Weibo board, replaced by former adman Chris Tung

Alibaba Group chairman Daniel Zhang has left the board at Weibo and replacing him is Chris Tung who is currently the CMO of Alibaba Group. Tung was also previously CEO of VML China and served as vice president of marketing at PepsiCo China

In a statement, Weibo said Zhang has resigned from the board of directors, effective from 10 January 2022. The company said it would like to express its gratitude to him for his contributions and his services during his tenure as a director of the company. Weibo added that Tung has "valuable and relevant qualifications and experience that qualify him to succeed Zhang". 

Zhang also recently resigned from the board of Didi Global. The ride hailing company appointed Zhang Yi as director at the same time.  Zhang is senior legal director of Alibaba Group and general counsel of Alibaba Local Services Company. He joined Alibaba Group in August 2014. Before joining Alibaba Group, Zhang practiced law with several international law firms and is a licensed attorney of the State of New York. In December last year, Bloomberg reported that Alibaba was exploring options to sell off its approximate 30% stake in Weibo to Shanghai Media Group.

In November Weibo said it was looking to raise US$547 million in Hong Kong. This came as the US stepped up scrutiny of Chinese companies and listings in the Hong Kong market are seen as a way to mitigate the risk of removal from US exchanges, and access to investors closer to home.

Weibo was first launched in 2009 and was one of the first social media platforms in China. It allows for netizens to create, discover and distribute content. According to the firm, Weibo enables its advertising and marketing customers to promote their brands, products and services to users and generates a substantial majority of its revenues from the sale of advertising and marketing services, including the sale of social display advertisement and promoted marketing offerings.

Last year, Weibo also fired its top PR director over bribery allegations. The company said he failed to "set an example and his abandoning of principles in the face of temptation to profit". It also said that his actions seriously harmed the interests of the company. A Weibo notice seen by Bloomberg also apparently said the action demonstrated Weibo's "zero-tolerance" towards fraudulent behaviour and should be a warning to employees to abide by the law and the group’s rules.

Meanwhile, tech companies in China have seen major leadership changes in recent months. For example, JD.com made several senior promotions with immediate effect to strengthen its service offerings and allow chairman and CEO Richard Liu to work on the company's long term strategies in September 2021. The company has promoted Xu Lei as president of JD.com. In his new role, Xu, who continues to report to Liu, leads the day-to-day operation and collaborative development of various business units of JD.com.

Also, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming stepped down as chairman of the company in November 2021. However, he was said to be staying on with the company to help formulate the company's longer-term strategy. CEO Liang Rubo replaced Zhang on the five-member board which includes representatives from several investors such as Susquehanna International Group and Sequoia Capital China.

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