It has been announced that the current chief operating officer of online marketplace Alibaba is to become the new CEO as of May 10th. Daniel Zhang will replace Jonathan Lu who is to remain with the company as vice chairman.

Alibaba reported strong financial results recently, with revenue increasing 45% to 17.43 billion yuan (£1.8 billion) sending shares up by 7.5%. It dominates Chinese shopping, with 80% of the market.

The company, founded by entrepreneur and billionaire Jack Ma, has put a hold on hiring staff and pay rises as he said that the company was “growing too fast”.