Key Highlights:
- • Alibaba launches cloud-based livestream shopping product tailored for online shopping to allow e-commerce players launch live stream shopping features
- • The features will be hosted on Alibaba’s cloud
- • The company’s cloud computing announcement came after it reported its first net loss as a public company
2800 Nodes in Over 70 Countries
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has launched its latest cloud computing products in order to expand its base across Asia. Leveraging cloud computing, the company aims to drive profit over a long period of time. Over the past few years, it has been boosting its presence vigorously outside the territories of China.
Cloud-based Livestream shopping product
The company has launched a cloud-based livestreaming product tailored for online shopping. The cloud-based product will allow e-commerce players to launch a live stream shopping feature on their websites or apps that are hosted on Alibaba’s cloud.
Livestream shopping has gained huge popularity in China and is flourishing across other regions of Asia. It usually involves a host narrating about products which customers can directly buy during the live broadcast.
Alibaba’s cloud computing announcements came after the company reported its first net loss as a public company during the January to March quarter. The company was charged with a massive fine of $2.8 billion, which was a result of an anti-monopoly investigation by the Chinese authorities.
Alibaba’s livestream shopping platform
The livestream platform is built with Alibaba’s content delivery networks (CDN) which covers over 2,800 nodes in more than 70 countries and allows an uninterrupted single transfer between sellers, buyers and the nearest DCs. The platform also uses its own proprietary Narrowband HD™ transcoding technology, which improves the image quality of the live stream – its latency is roughly two seconds.
According to Jeff Zhang, president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, “As one of the leading providers and trusted partners in the global cloud market, technological innovation is at the heart of Alibaba Cloud’s long-term development.” He added that introducing new products and solutions with continuous enhanced product features will help the company deliver its promise to the global customers and partners.
He further stated that, “The acceleration of the digital transformation agenda and adoption of emerging technologies is particularly encouraging in Asia, motivating us to constantly improve our innovative and R&D capabilities to stay at the forefront of the industry.”
Standing out in the competition
On 8 June, the multinational company specializing in e-commerce retail shopping announced plans to open a new data center in the Philippines by the end of 2021. The company has also established a third data center in Indonesia. Using livestream shopping, the Chinese e-commerce firm aims to stand out from its US competitors including Microsoft and Amazon in the cloud market.
Although the e-commerce firm has a global presence, it still trails behind tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google. In the Chinese region, the company faces heavy competition from other technology giants including Huawei and Tencent —who have recently upgraded their cloud computing investments.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Alibaba was the biggest public cloud market vendor at the end of 2020 with a 19.2% share, according to IDC, boosted by success in China. Amazon was second with a 10.5% share. According to Aliababa’s CFO, Maggie Wu, “The company would invest incremental profits and additional capital” in new businesses and key strategic areas in its current fiscal year.”
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