Chinese e-commerce platform operator JD.com on Friday introduced a gifting feature on its mobile app, joining rival Alibaba Group Holding in countering the competitive pressure from social media giant Tencent Holdings, which launched a similar feature last month. When browsing a selection of eligible merchandise, JD.com app users will see a button labelled “Gifting IT.” … Read more
China’s major e-commerce companies, from JD.com to Alibaba Group Holding, are rushing to take advantage of Beijing’s latest subsidies aimed at spurring consumer spending at the start of the year. Tmall, Alibaba’s premium shopping site carrying mainly established brands, on Wednesday kicked off new subsidies for shoppers buying home appliances. Rival JD.com on the same … Read more
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group Holding, has given users of its visual reasoning artificial intelligence (AI) model a new year’s gift by cutting prices up to 85 per cent, as price wars continue to rage in China’s domestic AI services market. The announcement, coming on the last day of 2024, marks … Read more
TikTok owner ByteDance was China’s biggest investor in technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024, with its outlay almost matching the combined spending of rivals Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, according to new research. Beijing-based ByteDance, founded by Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming, invested an estimated 80 billion yuan (US$11 billion) on capital expenditure … Read more
Alibaba Group Holding is taking a 9.3 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) loss in its sale of Intime, one of China’s leading department store operators, as the e-commerce giant walks away from offline retailing to focus on its core businesses. The company is selling its entire stake in the retail chain, in which it first invested … Read more
Alibaba Group Holding has separated the team in charge of developing applications for its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Tongyi Qianwen from the team that builds its large language model (LLM), in a bid to better serve the consumer-facing market, according to Chinese tech media outlet 36Kr. The AI chatbot team will transition to the Intelligent … Read more
Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, said it had no immediate plans to revive its initial public offering (IPO), dispelling market speculation it would soon go public. The Chinese company shocked investors in November 2020 by cancelling its US$39.7 billion IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai less than 48 hours before market … Read more
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) arm of Alibaba Group Holding, is working with Chinese state media to live stream the country’s most-watched event of the year, amid increasing demand from traditional media to adopt advanced technologies in their content. The Alibaba unit signed a deal with China Media Group (CMG), which … Read more
China approved 122 domestic and 13 foreign video games in December, bringing the total number of licensed titles to more than 1,400 this year, the highest since 2019. On Tuesday, the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), the agency responsible for licensing video games in China, announced the list of approved domestic titles for the … Read more
Ant Group, the fintech giant affiliated with Alibaba Group Holding, is splitting the business group of its mobile payment platform Alipay into two units, in its latest corporate restructuring move to drive new growth. The company will establish the Digital Payment Business Group and Alipay Business Group, and adopt a “rotating presidential system” for the … Read more
