Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has appointed a cohort of younger executives to lead its e-commerce unit, as the once-dominant giant seeks to reinvigorate growth in the face of fierce competition.

Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu, who this week took the helm of the main online platforms Taobao and Tmall, announced on Friday the selection of six managers to report directly to him from various segments of the core business, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. A Taobao and Tmall spokesperson confirmed the appointments.

The shuffle emerged days after the abrupt departure of longstanding e-commerce chief Trudy Dai, one of Alibaba’s most experienced executives. The appointees include Wu Jia, president of the company’s intelligence information business group, who will lead user platform experience and features; Chen Weiye, chief operating officer of Ele.me, now overseeing Taobao; and Liu Bo, a group vice president, who’s taking charge of Tmall.

“To secure and win our future, we must confront our current realities and reignite our entrepreneurial spirit,” CEO Wu wrote in the memo. China’s LatePost first reported the appointments.

The decision is the latest in a series of changes at Alibaba after mis-steps and regulatory scrutiny eroded its position against rivals like PDD Holdings Inc. and ByteDance Ltd. Once the most valuable company in China, Alibaba has sought to claw its way back to growth, initially with a plan to split into six parts. That effort has hit major bumps, including the abrupt departure of former CEO Daniel Zhang.

Since becoming Alibaba’s chief in September, Eddie Wu has taken direct control of its two biggest businesses, cloud and e-commerce.

The longtime executive, who has been with co-founder Jack Ma since the company’s beginnings, has said the goal is for the core leadership team to be younger by promoting those born after 1985 and the 1990s within the next four years. Wu Jia, one of the newly minted e-commerce executives, was born in 1985.

By Sarah Zheng

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