Beijing: In a video interview on FT.com’s  CEIBS: Business in China series, star entrepreneur Jack Ma (profile: China’s accidental internet champion behind the FT paywall) expounds enthusiastically on how his e-commerce and online auction company Alibaba manages to hire and retain good staff.

"We have very few people who say ‘Jack, I want to leave’," says Ma.

But personnel retention can clearly be a challenge even for the charismatic Ma, who last year famously managed to persuade Yahoo to give him control of its Chinese operations as part of a $1bn deal that made the US portal Alibaba’s biggest shareholder.

Chinese internet circles are buzzing with the news that Yahoo’s new China CEO Xie Wen has quit just a month after his appointment. And while Alibaba says Xie resigned for "personal reasons", the rumour-mongers are possible splits with Ma over strategy or disputes with Yahoo China staff, some of whom reportedly clapped on news of their new CEO’s departure.

Zeng Ming, Yahoo China’s head of strategy development, is to take over as acting president. Zeng joined Alibaba in August. Let’s see how long he lasts.

November 28th, 2006 in Internet | Permalink