Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba unexpectedly announced on Tuesday that it would be replacing its CEO Daniel Zhang, who has held the post for eight years, at a time when the group is undertaking a major restructuring of its activities. 

In March, Alibaba, China's online retail pioneer, announced the biggest restructuring in its history, with the division of its activities into six separate entities. The group is a heavyweight in the Chinese tech sector, with activities in e-commerce, logistics, cloud computing, media, entertainment and artificial intelligence.

Daniel Zhang will be replaced as CEO on September 10 by Eddie Yongming Wu, chairman of the group's main consumer e-commerce applications Taobao and Tmall.

For his part, Joseph C. Tsai, Alibaba's current executive vice-president, will succeed Zhang on the board of directors. The latter will remain with Alibaba as head of its cloud computing business, the group said.

"This is the right time for me to make a transition, given the importance of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group as it progresses towards a full spin-off. I look forward to working closely with Joe and Eddie in the coming months to ensure a seamless transition," Zhang said.

These changes come after several years of turbulence in the tech sector. Alibaba was particularly targeted by a regulatory crackdown by the authorities on giants in the sector. Alibaba was the first company to suffer the wrath of the authorities.

At the end of 2020, Beijing halted a gigantic IPO in Hong Kong by Ant Group, Alibaba's finance and payment subsidiary, 48 hours before the event.

The following month, Alibaba was investigated for hindering competition. These setbacks severely penalised its profitability in 2022.

However, the Chinese government seems to have eased up in recent months and adopted a more conciliatory attitude towards the sector, against a backdrop of economic slowdown.