China’s JD.com promotes Lei Xu to CEO as founder Liu steps back

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JD.com Inc promoted its president, Lei Xu, as chief government officer on Thursday to succeed founder Richard Liu, formally handing him the reins of the Chinese language e-commerce firm after he carried out the function for a number of months.

Xu, who has labored at JD.com for greater than a decade, will begin the highest job instantly, the corporate stated in a press release, including that he may also be part of the board as an government director.

Xu’s appointment comes with JD.com coping with slowing development as competitors rises and client spending shrinks amid tightened rules in China which have focused e-commerce platforms.

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JD.com has been slicing jobs not too long ago and expanded layoffs in March, in response to native media, as produce other Chinese language expertise firms who’re slashing their workforce to chop prices in a weaker, pandemic-ravaged financial system. JD.com’s U.S.-listed shares have almost halved since their peak in February 2021.

Reuters reported final month that China’s web giants Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings are making ready for layoff rounds this 12 months which may lower tens of 1000’s of jobs.

JD.com’s core e-commerce enterprise remained stable and the job cuts have been occurring at its marginal companies, stated Liu Xingliang, president of tech consultancy China Web Knowledge Heart.

“Richard Liu is handing over the baton to Xu Lei, who will care for the on a regular basis enterprise,” he stated.

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Richard, who began the corporate that will develop into JD.com in 1998 and some years again had referred to as out what he stated have been “slackers https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-labour-idUSKCN1RP06D ” in his agency, will spend extra time mentoring youthful administration and deal with the corporate’s enterprise in rural areas.

With 80% of its voting share as per the corporate’s 2020 annual report, and an almost 14% stake, Liu will stay chairman of the board.

Liu has steadily stepped away from the limelight after he was accused of rape by a College of Minnesota pupil in 2018. His representatives maintained his innocence and Liu was not charged as a result of U.S. authorities couldn’t collect sufficient proof to show the allegations.

Final September, JD.com had stated Liu would step away from the day-to-day operations, handing these tasks over to Xu and switching his focus to JD.com’s long-term technique.

(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Sophie Yu in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Modifying by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sayantani Ghosh)