Ma still Alibaba's biggest boss

Alibaba's co-founder Jack Ma is still the biggest boss of the e-commerce giant, senior executives said, after the sudden resignation of ex-leader Dianel Zhang from the cloud unit surprised the market.

Zhang became chief executive of Alibaba in 2015 and took over from Ma as group chairman in 2019.

Last December he said he would resign from the leadership positions of the group and focus on the cloud unit as CEO and chairman.

His resignation surprised some senior executives as the spin-off of Alibaba Cloud is expected to be completed before May 2024.

This year the founder of Alibaba Cloud, Wang Jian, was reported to have returned to the unit after a 10-year hiatus.

Senior executives said Wang's comeback sent a clear signal that Ma remains head of Alibaba. Although Ma does not work at Alibaba, he can still have a great impact due to the complicated equity holding structure and cooperation with the company.