Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba appoints a new its chief executive as it announces 45% revenue growth for the quarter.
Daniel Zhang currently chief operating officer, will become chief executive on Sunday and said he would continue his predecessor’s push into mobile and and expansion into new businesses.
He replaces Jonathan Lu, who will remain on the board as vice chairman, Alibaba said Thursday.
The company’s mobile take rate, or the percentage of people who take some form of action on a website, dipped slightly last quarter due to activity around the Chinese New Year, when much of the country is on holiday, Zhang said. However, in the big picture, Chinese customers and merchants continue to move from personal computers to mobile phones, he said.
Alibaba’s quarterly revenue jumped 45 percent to $2.81 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $2.77 billion.