Patrick Liu Chunning, president of the digital entertainment business of Alibaba Group, speaks at a launch ceremony for Alibaba's Yulebao (Yule Bao) service in Shanghai, March 26, 2014. [Photo / IC]

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said Patrick Liu, the president of the Chinese e-commerce company's digital entertainment unit, has been detained over issues related to his time as head of Tencent Holdings Ltd's video division.

"We understand that Patrick Liu with our digital entertainment unit has been detained by the authorities. This issue is related to his time at Tencent and has nothing to do with Alibaba," Alibaba spokesman Bob Christie said in an email.

Liu is the former head of Tencent Video.

A Bloomberg reporter first tweeted Liu had been taken into custody.