Alibaba Reuses Tech-savvy Talents: Wu Zeming, a member of the post-80s generation, "Rises to Power", and 3 out of 5 members of the Partnership Committee are Tech Backbones

Another member of the "post - 80s" tech - savvy group has joined Alibaba's core decision - making layer.

According to an insider from Alibaba, in May 2026, Wu Zeming (Fan Yu), the CTO of Alibaba Group, officially joined the Alibaba Partnership Committee, becoming the fifth member of the committee. Meanwhile, Shao Xiaofeng retired at the age of 60 and withdrew from the partnership committee.

Alibaba's Partnership Committee is the core power institution under the partnership system. In 2010, the partnership system led by Jack Ma was officially established, incorporating core executives and the "top leaders" of major business departments into the partnership. Among them, Jack Ma and Joe Tsai are the only two permanent partners.

Wu Zeming's promotion means that among the five - member group of Alibaba's top decision - making layer, including Wu Yongming and Jiang Fan, there are now three tech - savvy executives.

In this regard, Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iiMedia Research, believes that this is a very clear signal for Alibaba's top - level strategic layout. On the one hand, it is an endorsement of Wu Zeming's technical and business capabilities. On the other hand, it means that Alibaba prioritizes AI and instant retail.

A 22 - year Tech Veteran Gets Promoted

Public information shows that Wu Zeming was born in 1982 and joined Taobao in 2004. He is one of the early builders of Alibaba's e - commerce technology architecture and has served as the CTO of local life, the CTO of Alibaba Cloud, and the CTO of the group. Over the 22 years, almost every promotion of Wu Zeming has been linked to key battles and strategies.

Starting as a senior architect, Wu Zeming grew into a core member of the technical architecture construction of Alibaba's e - commerce system. In 2016, he served as the chief technical officer of the "Double 11" Global Shopping Festival on Tmall, leading the implementation of the technical architecture that supported the world's largest - scale e - commerce promotion event.

It was after the "100 - billion peak" of that year's "Double 11" that in February 2017, Wu Zeming was nominated as an Alibaba partner, becoming one of the first batch of "post - 80s" partners.

After being promoted to the president of the New Retail Technology Business Group in 2018, Wu Zeming's technical management scope continued to expand. He successively served as the CTO of local life and the CTO of Alibaba Cloud, and finally became Alibaba's first "post - 80s" group CTO.

This time, his entry into the partnership committee is no exception. Many industry insiders believe that Wu Zeming's promotion is related to last year's food delivery war. "Obviously, it's because Taobao Flash Shopping achieved better - than - expected results in the past year, especially by snatching a large market share from Meituan, JD.com, etc.," Ding Daoshi, a senior Internet observer, told reporters from Time Weekly. He said that Wu Zeming brought the business activity of the entire Taobao system to a new height.

Looking back to 2025, Wu Zeming received an unprecedented task: while serving as the CTO of Alibaba Group, he took over as the chairman and CEO of Ele.me and led Alibaba to comprehensively renovate the "Ele.me" app into "Taobao Flash Shopping", engaging in a fierce battle with Meituan in the instant retail market.

At that time, Meituan had dominated the industry for many years, and Taobao Flash Shopping undoubtedly faced a tough battle.

However, Wu Zeming adopted a cross - approach of "technology + business". On the one hand, he relied on the local merchant and rider network accumulated by Ele.me over the years. On the other hand, he fully integrated the Alibaba ecosystem, injecting Taobao's annual active buyer pool of about 900 million, the high - net - worth membership system of 88VIP, and Cainiao's supply - chain capabilities (warehousing and distribution network and intelligent dispatching system) into the instant retail track.

More importantly, Wu Zeming deeply embedded AI into the entire instant - retail process, making the business - driving logic of Taobao Flash Shopping "algorithm - driven" from the very beginning, rather than just "subsidy - driven".

Ultimately, the results of this battle exceeded expectations. According to Alibaba, just one year after the launch of Taobao Flash Shopping, its DAU increased from almost zero to a stable over 100 million. According to a report from a third - party institution, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Taobao Flash Shopping surpassed Meituan for the first time with a market share of 45.2% compared to Meituan's 45.0%.

In addition, Jiang Fan, CEO of Alibaba's China e - commerce business group, said that in the past year, Flash Shopping had a significant impact on the overall platform, and the annual active buyers of Alibaba's e - commerce market increased by 150 million. The increase in the annual active buyers of Taobao's physical e - commerce exceeded the total of the past three years.

When the company's most money - burning and most synergy - demanding strategic business was "turned around" by a person with a technical background in one year, it was only natural for Wu Zeming to enter the partnership committee.

Alibaba Reuses Tech - Savvy Doers

In fact, Wu Zeming's entry into the top decision - making layer was not an overnight success but had been in the works for a long time.

In April, Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group, issued an internal letter announcing the establishment of a technology committee at the group level. Wu Yongming serves as the team leader, and Wu Zeming is responsible for the construction of the group's business technology platform and AI inference platform. Meanwhile, Wu Zeming handed over the CEO position of Taobao Flash Shopping to Lei Yanqun and focused on his full - time job as the group CTO.

Looking at the long - term, behind Wu Zeming's promotion is the result of Alibaba's years - long effort to make the management team younger and more tech - savvy.

As early as September 2023, in his first letter to all employees after taking office as the group CEO, Wu Yongming clearly stated: "In four years, we will let the 'post - 85s' and 'post - 90s' be the main managers to renew the business management team."

Shortly after his speech, in December of the same year, Taotian Group underwent a major youth - oriented adjustment: a group of "post - 80s" with technical or product backgrounds, such as Wu Jia, Chen Weiye, Wang Tingxiang, and Cheng Daofang, were appointed as the heads of six key business segments and reported directly to CEO Wu Yongming.

Two years later, the trend of youth and technology further spread to the partnership team. In June 2025, Alibaba's partnership team experienced the largest - scale "streamlining" in history, with the total number dropping sharply from 26 to 17, hitting a new low since its listing in 2014.

Among them, veteran executives such as Zhang Yong, Dai Shan, and Yu Yongfu collectively withdrew, and almost all those remaining were front - line business leaders or technical backbones like Jiang Fan, Wu Zeming, and Liu Zhenfei. This means that Alibaba's decision - making power is gradually shifting from "co - governance by veterans" to "those who can hear the gunshots".

Subsequently, in December 2025, Zhou Jingren, the CTO of Alibaba Cloud and the head of Tongyi Lab, was added as a partner, just half a year after the streamlining of Alibaba's partnership team. The symbolic meaning of this move is self - evident: against the backdrop of "AI - driven" being established as one of Alibaba's two strategic focuses, the voice of technical leaders has reached a historical high.

Now, Wu Zeming's entry into the partnership committee marks that the "rise" of the tech - savvy group has reached the highest level of Alibaba's power structure. The tech - savvy group is no longer just the backbone of the execution layer but is increasingly involved in the decision - making of the company's most core strategic directions.

Ding Daoshi also agrees with this. He believes that Alibaba's current recruitment style is "ability - based, those who are capable take on the job". Now, the promotion path for middle - and high - level positions in Alibaba is the same, and many "post - 80s" and "post - 90s" have become higher - level leaders.

In addition, Ding Daoshi also said that in the future, more young reserve forces will enter more critical positions in Alibaba. "Especially in the AI era, executives who understand AI better, technology better, and can convert ideas into growth rates will have more room for promotion."

Zhang Yi, an analyst at iiMedia Research, also said: "Talents who understand both technology and business implementation are crucial for Alibaba in the upcoming instant - retail and AI era."

If we connect the youth - oriented adjustment of Taotian at the end of 2023, the "streamlining" of the partnership in 2025, Zhou Jingren's promotion, and Wu Zeming's entry into the partnership committee in 2026, a clear line emerges: Tech - savvy backbones are gradually moving from the backstage to the front - stage and from the execution layer to Alibaba's decision - making layer.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Time Weekly" (ID: timeweekly). Author: Yang Chunxia, Editor: Qin Shuo. Republished by 36Kr with permission.