Lazada’s Thailand CEO James Dong will also head Vietnam’s operations to strengthen cross-country collaboration in two important markets in the region, Lazada Group said in a statement.
His corporate profile states that Dong joined Lazada in June 2018 as the CEO of Lazada Thailand. Prior to joining Lazada, he held several roles at Alibaba, including that of business assistant to Group CEO Daniel Zhang.
While at Alibaba, Dong was driving the Chinese firm’s e-commerce globalization strategy and portfolio management, which included Lazada’s integration into Alibaba. Alibaba acquired control of Lazada in 2016 with an initial USD 1 billion investment and later increased its stake with another USD 2 billion investment.
Vietnam remains an important growth market for Lazada as it looks to invest locally to further technology and logistics infrastructure developments, as well as elevate consumers’ shopping experiences. Lazada Vietnam has to compete fiercely with domestic rivals Tiki and Vingroup’s Adayroi, alongside regional rival Shopee.
Lazada is the top or second-most visited e-commerce platform in most Southeast Asian nations, with the exception of Indonesia, which has strong homegrown e-commerce unicorns like Tokopedia and Bukalapak–and, notably, Vietnam, where Shopee and Tiki get the most visits.
“I am confident that we will win in the market by engaging a young population, leveraging the quick pace of trends and through continuous application of our strong technology and logistics foundation,” the new Lazada Vietnam CEO said in a press statement.
James Dong succeeds Max Zhang in the role of Vietnam CEO. Zhang will remain a part of the Alibaba Group.