China’s top classifieds site 58.com announced on Friday that founder and former CEO of Ganji, Mark Yang, resigned from the positions of co-chairman and director of the board of 58 Ganji.
Chairman and CEO of 58.com Michael Yao said, “We are very grateful for Haoyong’s (Mark Yang’s) contribution to the board, and we look forward to working with him closely in his role as CEO of Guazi as it seeks to benefit from the significant growth opportunities in the rapidly transforming and growing used car market in China.”
This personnel change feeds rumors that Ganji’s management were pushed out of the merged 58 Ganji group.
58.com and its rival Ganji.com merged in April 2015, with 58.com acquiring a 43.2% stake in Ganji. The companies announced they would operate separately, with both brands and employees maintained and founders of both companies taking the positions of co-chairmen and co-CEOs of the new group.
Last November, Yang left the post of co-CEO of 58 Ganji, while his position as co-chairman and his shareholdings in the group remained. At the same time, Yang announced he would serve as chairman and CEO of Guazi.com, a second-hand car trading platform once affiliated with Ganji, investing USD 60 million and acquiring a more than 50% share in the company.
Besides merging Ganji into its platform, 58.com strengthened its force in local services by acquiring two other companies by the end of last May, including Anjuke, the real estate sales and rental platform that has existed for almost a decade, and ChinaHR, the earliest recruiting site which became a wholly-owned branch of America‘s largest job site, Monster, in 2008.
According to Yao, the inclusion of these platforms has together generated traffic, merchants and revenues for 58.com, which finished fiscal year 2015 with a strong fourth quarter, according to its earnings report. Its Q4 total revenues were USD 255.3 million, a 218.3% increase from the same quarter last year, and its total revenues in fiscal year 2015 were USD 714.9 million, a 169.8% increase from fiscal year 2014.
(Top photo from Mini.eastday.com)
