E-commerce giant Alibaba has demoted Jiang Fan, president of B2C business Tmall and C2C business Taobao, from partnership at the firm, where he was one of 37 partners alongside founder Jack Ma, after a probe into his behaviour.
Despite announcing on Monday that Jiang was not involved in the company’s decision to invest in online celebrity incubator Ruhnn, clearing him of legal misconduct, Alibaba said Jiang still faced consequences for incurring a PR crisis.
On April 18, Jiang became the center of affair allegations involving Zhang Dayi, an online celebrity and key investor of Ruhnn, which precipitated online speculation about misconduct behind the two companies’ business dealings.
Besides losing partner status, he has also been downgraded from the management level of senior vice president to vice president at the group level, and has had all bonuses for 2019 forfeited.
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This article is part of KrASIA’s “China Brief” section, where KrASIA’s reporters will provide quick daily updates about the tech ecosystem in China.
