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JD.com's founder Richard Liu steps down as CEO, president Xu Lei succeeds
Updated 23:13, 07-Apr-2022
CGTN
Billionaire Richard Liu, founder and CEO of JD.com, attends the Wall Street Journal DLive Asia Conference in Hong Kong, China, June 9, 2017. /CFP

Billionaire Richard Liu, founder and CEO of JD.com, attends the Wall Street Journal DLive Asia Conference in Hong Kong, China, June 9, 2017. /CFP

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com appointed its president Xu Lei as chief executive officer (CEO) on Thursday as billionaire Richard Liu stepped down from the post.

Xu, who has worked at JD.com for over 10 years, will also join the board as an executive director, the Beijing-headquartered company said in a statement.

His appointment comes after several months of handling the day-to-day operations since last September, when he was promoted to the position of president from the role of CEO at JD Retail, JD.com's most popular business.

Xu Lei, retail chief executive officer of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, takes part in a ceremony to mark the company's listing on the Hong Kong stock market at JD.com's headquarters in Beijing, China, June 18, 2020. /CFP

Xu Lei, retail chief executive officer of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, takes part in a ceremony to mark the company's listing on the Hong Kong stock market at JD.com's headquarters in Beijing, China, June 18, 2020. /CFP

Founder Liu, whose given Chinese name is Qiangdong, will retain his title as the chairman of the conglomerate.

"I'll devote more of my time to JD's long-term strategies and future drivers as we continue to work on the most challenging yet valuable things," Liu said in the statement.

He also revealed that he'll focus on "mentoring younger management and contributing to the revitalization of rural areas."

Liu's step back marks the latest top job departure from China's big tech firms in recent years, following Pinduoduo's Colin Huang and ByteDance's Zhang Yiming.

The 48-year-old opened a shop in Beijing in 1998 and moved the retail business online six years later. It is where JD.com's majority revenues come from today.

In 2018, Liu was arrested for criminal sexual conduct in the U.S., which the company called an "unsubstantiated accusation," and later released without a charge of crime.

JD.com generated 951.6 billion yuan ($149.3 billion) in net revenues in 2021, up 27.5 percent from 2020, according to its latest earnings report.

The company went public on the Nasdaq in 2014 and registered its secondary listing in Hong Kong in 2020, where its health and logistics arms were later listed.

According to local media reports, the giant has recently cut over a thousand jobs, saying the layoffs were "normal optimization."

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