Alipay takes head of payments in Southeast Asia

596
2
Alipay takes head of payments in Southeast Asia

Bloomberg - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. tapped Lazada Group for the first time to lead payments in Southeast Asia and created a former Alipay executive for the position

Dayong Zhang, former general manager of Southeast Asia for Ant Group Co. s Alipay, will become Lazada's head of payments, the company said, confirming a report by Bloomberg News earlier on Friday. The move underscores the e-commerce business'effort to generate growth from the business.

Lazada is seeking to take off Southeast Asian internet rivals such as Grab Holdings Inc. and Sea Ltd., who have aggressively pushing their payment products. The region s payment market is growing rapidly on the back of growing demand for online shopping.

A cloud computing company Lazada will be able to lead Lazada further to its growth and further strengthen our competitive advantage through payment technology, Bloomberg said in a written answer to questions from readers.

Lazada s Singapore chief executive officer, James Chang, will take up a broader regional role and becoming the group s chief business officer. Chang Chang, the head of Lazada Group, will replace Wee Lee Loh as Singapore's interim Chairman. He joined the company in 2018 and joined the Company in 2017.

Zhang, a graduate of Tsinghua University with a degree in computer software, joined Alipay in 2008 and served as local manager of the Southeast Asia region according to his LinkedIn profile. Chang was selected in 2019 from Lazada Philippines after joining the Co-Founder and managing director of Lazada Singapore in 2012, according to his LinkedIn page.

Since Chun Li took over Lazada about a year ago, the company has been investing in technology and focusing on localization to cater to different consumer tastes across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. Lazada recorded more than 90% order growth during the week ended June and has more than 150 million monthly average users.