Lazada replaces its group CEO

With additional reporting by Terence Lee and Melissa Goh.

Southeast Asian ecommerce giant Lazada has appointed James Dong as its new group CEO with immediate effect. Dong replaces Chun Li, who has helmed the company since July 2020.

Lazada Group CEO James Dong / Photo credit: Lazada

Dong was previously CEO of Lazada Thailand and Vietnam. In addition to this new appointment, he will continue to be chief executive of Lazada Thailand and take over the Indonesia CEO position from Li.

The executive joined Lazada in June 2018. Prior to that, Dong held several roles at Alibaba, including serving as business assistant to Group CEO Daniel Zhang. While at Alibaba, Dong drove the Chinese titan’s ecommerce globalization strategy and portfolio management, which included Lazada’s integration into Alibaba.

A Lazada spokesperson tells Tech in Asia that while Li has stepped down from his current role, he will continue to act as advisor to Jiang Fan, Lazada Group’s chairman. Li will also retain a seat on Lazada’s board of directors.

Kaya Qin is the new CEO of Lazada Vietnam. She joined Lazada in June 2018 as the Chief Operating Officer of Lazada Vietnam.

See also: Org Chart: The people steering Lazada (updated)

Constant leadership reshuffle

Dong’s appointment makes him Lazada’s fifth group CEO in five years. Since original founder Maximilian Bittner left in 2018, Lazada’s group CEOs have included Lucy Peng (2018), Pierre Poignant (2018 to 2020), and Li (2020 to 2022).

Alibaba acquired control of Lazada in 2016 with an initial investment of US$1 billion.

In May, Tech in Asia reported that Lazada got another US$378 million boost in funding from Alibaba, according to filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority.

Tech in Asia previously calculated that Alibaba injected about US$4.4 billion into Lazada between 2018 and 2020. While a significant sum, it still trailed behind Shopee’s US$6.6 billion war chest during the same period.

Meanwhile, Lazada is reportedly eyeing Europe for its first major expansion, gearing for a potential IPO as a standalone company. Our previous analysis shows that a spun-off Lazada should attract a valuation higher than Alibaba’s 2.1x revenue.

Alibaba also revealed that its Southeast Asian ecommerce operations clocked in US$21 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) during the one-year period ending September 2021.