Chun Li is the new CEO of Lazada!

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced on Friday that Lazada co-president and head Indonesian operations will take over as the new group chief executive of its Southeast  Asian Arm Lazada Group.

Lazada's Chun Li (left), Capcom's Chun-Li (right)

Not Chun-Li of Capcom's Street Fighter video game series

Lazada's Chun Li will succeed Pierre Poignant as the new Lazada CEO to drive the company's next phase of growth under an accelerated digitalization landscape in the region.

Poignant, on the other hand, will become the special assistant to Alibaba Group chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang.

According Lazada, Chun Li has an intimate understanding of Lazada's business and market landscape due to his experience in both roles over the last 3 years. Li also has deep experience in technology architecture and product strategy which is vital to strengthen the group's data technology application and business localization across its 6 markets.

Chun is an experienced business leader who can realize Lazada's vision of unifying commerce with technology to advance Southeast Asia's digital economy, said Lazada group chairman Lucy Peng

Chun Li said that Lazada's priority is to create unique value for consumers and merchants in Southeast Asia.

E-commerce in Southeast Asia was worth USD 38 billion last year and is expected to grow rapidly, according to a study by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company.

According to iPrice, Singapore-based and Tencent Holdings backed Shopee as the most downloaded e-commerce app and the most used in Southeast Asia as of end-2019. It knocked Lazada to the second place. Shopee's website also attracts more visitors than Lazada.

Sources: Reuters, The Straits Times