Former Taobao head to replace Jack Ma as Alibaba CEO

Jonathan Lu Zhaoxi will replace China based Alibaba's founder Jack Ma as its chief executive officer, the company announced. Alibaba is an internet-based businesses which connects buyers and sellers across the globe.

Lu,  who has been with Alibaba for over 13 years,  will take over as CEO on May 10, 2013, according to the company. Lu joined the group in 2000 and has headed its online payment service Alipay as founding president. He has also worked in Alibaba's consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online marketplace Taobao.

"He is passionate about and familiar with the group's various businesses," said Ma. In January, Ma announced he is step down as CEO to give opportunity to younger leaders. He would continue as its chairman.

Also, in the same month, the group reorganised into 25 business units to get a better foothold in China's fast-growing e-commerce space.

Alibaba Group was one of the investors in the $250 million PrinceVille Fund to help growth-stage technology startups expand into the Asian market. The fund was closed by SoftBank Capital, a venture group affiliated with SoftBank Corp, a Japan-based telecommunications, internet and media conglomerate.

Ma, a former English teacher hailing from Hangzhou, founded Alibaba in 1999. Alibaba Group's major businesses and affiliated entities include a global e-commerce platform for small businesses, Alibaba.com.

Alibaba.com formally made its India foray in September 2010.  Techcircle.in caught up with Khalid Isar, country general manager of Alibaba.com, who spoke about India as a market for the Chinese platform, its business model, marketing strategy and India-specific plans  (watch the video here).  As of December 31, 2012, the portal had around 36.7 million registered users globally.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)