behind the alibaba single - our asia correspondent. he was behind the alibaba single stay l behind the alibaba single stay phenomenon in 2009 and has been the chief executive for about eight years and he has been the chairman for around four years but now he is stepping down and he willjust focus on heading up the company s new cloud computing unit which is going to work on artificial intelligence. it is all part of the company s broader pivot away from e commerce and online shopping is what made it its fortune but in recent years sales have been sluggish and the value of the company has diminished and the management decided there was need for a rethink so about three months ago they announced the company would be splitting up into six. we company would be splitting up into six. ~ , . ~ company would be splitting up into six. ~ , ., ~ ., ., company would be splitting up into six. ~ , w . ., , company would be splitting up into six. we will break away to bring you some news