Alibaba Cloud CEO Eddie Wu: Making strategic investments to pave the way for Chinese enterprises to go global

Author | Chai Xuchen

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

"Let there be no difficult business in the world," Alibaba has turned its attention to Chinese enterprises under the tide of going global.

On May 22, at the Alibaba Cloud Chinese Enterprises Going Global Conference, Alibaba Group CEO and Alibaba Cloud Chairman and CEO Eddie Wu stated that Alibaba Cloud will make strategic investments to accelerate the creation of a global cloud computing network, speed up the internationalization of AI products, and enhance the construction of consulting, technology, and service teams for Chinese enterprises going global.

"In 1999, Alibaba's first business, alibaba.com, was to help Chinese enterprises go global, selling Chinese goods overseas and facilitating trade worldwide. Now, Chinese enterprises are entering a new stage of going global, where we are no longer limited to exporting goods, but rather Chinese technology, brands, and high-end manufacturing are going global."

Eddie Wu candidly stated that going global is an inevitable development for Chinese enterprises. China has a vast market of 1.4 billion people, the richest application scenarios, the largest number of high-quality engineers in the world, and intense and diverse competition.

In his view, products and technologies that succeed in the Chinese market will also play important roles in the global market. China has already achieved technological leadership in areas such as 5G, AI, and smart vehicles. The technological, supply chain, service, and brand capabilities of Chinese enterprises have formed an outward spillover effect. In the future, Chinese enterprises will have a greater influence in the global market.

Eddie Wu pointed out that the new round of globalization for Chinese enterprises will inevitably require a new generation of infrastructure. Alibaba Cloud will increase investment in three areas to fully support Chinese enterprises going global:

First, accelerate the creation of a global cloud computing network. Currently, Alibaba Cloud operates 87 availability zones in 29 regions worldwide, providing 394 cloud and AI products and 59 technical services, making it the largest cloud service provider in the Asia-Pacific region.

Eddie Wu stated that in the next three years, Alibaba will invest over 380 billion yuan in building cloud and AI hardware infrastructure, which exceeds the total investment of the past decade. According to the plan, Alibaba Cloud will accelerate the creation of a global cloud computing network covering China, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas, a cloud computing network with the best AI technology service capabilities and global competitiveness.

Internally, Alibaba Cloud revealed that it will maintain a unified technical architecture and service platform for domestic and overseas infrastructure, providing a comprehensive solution for Chinese enterprises to expand their global business.

In addition to infrastructure, Alibaba Cloud will also promote the internationalization of models and accelerate the globalization of AI products.

It is understood that Alibaba Tongyi has open-sourced over 200 models, with more than 100,000 derivative models, making it the largest open-source model group in the world. The newly open-sourced next-generation model, Qianwen 3, supports 119 languages, covering many minority languages and dialects, and has become a popular choice among local developers in Japan, Southeast Asia, and Middle Eastern countries.

Currently, Alibaba Cloud is accelerating the internationalization of AI products, increasing the layout of overseas AI infrastructure while speeding up the deployment of products required for AI applications such as Tongyi, Bailian, PAI, and big data At the infrastructure level, Alibaba Cloud Lingjun will launch services in multiple overseas regions; at the platform level, the development, training, and inference services of PAI have covered 17 regions worldwide; at the model service level, Alibaba Cloud Bailian International's ModelStudio has added multiple capabilities to provide more efficient and cost-effective model API services for Chinese companies going overseas.

After paving the way with infrastructure and model services, Alibaba Cloud's other strategy is to create a unified service experience both domestically and internationally. It is important to note that the ever-increasing privacy protection laws and data management regulations in overseas markets are not friendly to domestic players preparing to expand abroad.

According to Alibaba Cloud, it will enhance its investment in consulting, technology, and service teams for going overseas. Currently, Alibaba Cloud has the most comprehensive compliance system globally, having obtained over 150 security compliance certifications. Alibaba Cloud will continue to strengthen its compliance capabilities and share Alibaba's own overseas experience to help Chinese enterprises solve complex IT compliance challenges in various global markets.

In addition, Alibaba Cloud will provide solutions with better ROI. In May 2014, Alibaba Cloud's Hong Kong data center was put into operation, marking Alibaba Cloud's official entry into the international cloud computing market. To date, Alibaba Cloud has served 250,000 Chinese enterprises going overseas, covering various industries.

It is reported that Midea Group has built a digital foundation for its overseas regional business based on Alibaba Cloud's public cloud computing power, including storage, cloud networking, cloud security, and cloud databases. In the future, the two parties will engage in more cooperation in going overseas and AI.

Xu Zhe, Deputy General Manager of the Marketing Department of China Eastern Airlines, stated that China Eastern Airlines relies on Alibaba Cloud's "Cloud + AI" to achieve accelerated technological iteration, supporting innovations in order management, compliance, marketing, and AI applications for overseas business.

GAC Group has adopted a hybrid architecture of "Regional Center + National Station" planned by Alibaba Cloud to solve compliance challenges, and its overseas vehicle networking system has been completed on Alibaba Cloud. Wang Qijun, head of infrastructure at GAC Group, stated that in the Middle East, the vehicle networking system has significantly improved efficiency after adopting Alibaba Cloud's Lindorm big data engine, with data processing costs reduced by 50% compared to similar products from overseas cloud vendors.

Eddie Wu stated, "In the face of a new round of historic opportunities, Alibaba Cloud will make strategic investments to provide first-class infrastructure, technology, and services for Chinese enterprises going overseas, standing shoulder to shoulder with Chinese enterprises in the new era of great navigation."