Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming is doubling down on his 'AI-first' vision for the e-commerce giant, initiating a high-stakes leadership reshuffle within the company's instant retail division. On April 8, the company announced that Lei Yanqun, a veteran of Alibaba’s offline operations, will take the helm of Taobao Flash Sale (formerly known as Ele.me). He replaces Wu Zeming, who will shift his focus entirely to his role as Group Chief Technology Officer. This move signals a pivot from aggressive market expansion toward a more sophisticated integration of artificial intelligence into the logistics and merchant ecosystem.
The transition comes at a critical juncture for Alibaba’s local services. Under the strategic guidance of Jiang Fan, CEO of Alibaba’s China commerce wing, the company has set an ambitious target to scale Taobao Flash Sale into a trillion-yuan business within the next two years. To reach this milestone, the division must move beyond the subsidy-driven 'price wars' of the past decade and embrace a more rational, profit-oriented model. The goal is not just to deliver food, but to facilitate the instant delivery of all physical goods, positioning Taobao Flash Sale as a direct challenger to Meituan and JD.com.
Lei Yanqun’s appointment is particularly telling of Alibaba’s current priorities. A veteran who rose from grassroots roles to senior executive positions, Lei possesses deep experience in 'ground-war' logistics and merchant ecology. His previous tenure as the head of Ele.me’s offline teams and merchant ecosystems suggests that Alibaba is prioritizing operational efficiency and merchant relationships. Lei has already begun championing the 'productization' of AI, utilizing the Tongyi Large Language Model (LLM) to assist merchants in everything from store setup to daily lifecycle management.
The competitive landscape in China's instant retail sector has entered a 'cool-down' phase, with regulators increasingly signaling a preference for sustainable growth over predatory pricing. In this environment, Alibaba is betting that AI can serve as the ultimate 'intelligent link' between platforms, merchants, and urban operations. By lowering operational costs for vendors and optimizing delivery routes through real-time data, the company hopes to turn Taobao Flash Sale into a profitable engine by the 2029 fiscal year, finally justifying the billions spent during the delivery wars of the 2010s.