Haute 100 San Francisco: September 2015

JACK MA FORMS ALIBABA GROUP’S MUSIC DIVISION

Jack Ma, the executive chairman and founder of the Alibaba Group, formed Ali Music Group as the wealthiest man in China expands its digital entertainment business. The e-commerce giant said in a statement that the new unit would be “a crucial pillar of Alibaba Group’s digital entertainment strategy” that will “help forward our vision of becoming central to the everyday lives of our customers.” The formation of Ali Music Group includes the integration of two Alibaba-owned music streaming apps, Xiami and Tiantian. On July 20, Ma’s company announced that it was bringing in two veterans of China’s music industry—Gao Xiaosong to serve as chairman and Song Ke as CEO—to run the new division. “It is hoped that the two will creatively disrupt and catalyze the music industry [by] combining their cumulative experience…with Alibaba’s capabilities in the Internet space and Big Data,” Alibaba said in a statement.

LARRY PAGE AND SERGEY BRIN RESTRUCTURE GOOGLE

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin restructured the behemoth company they founded in 1998. On Aug. 10, Page announced in a blog post the creation of a new company, called Alphabet; he is the CEO and Brin the president. Google, along with Xlab, which incubates new efforts like Wing, the drone delivery effort, Ventures and Capital, is now under the umbrella of Alphabet, while some of the far afield companies, such as Life Sciences (which works on
the glucose-sensing contact lens) and Calico (focused on longevity), are not. “Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related,” Page wrote.