Alibaba Group Holding

Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan to debut in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh as international expansion quickens

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The company’s foray into Riyadh will pit Meituan against local rivals including Jahez International Co, Delivery Hero’s Talabat and HungerStation and Uber Technologies-backed Careem. The move comes as Saudi Arabia, already the region’s biggest economy, devises plans to invest trillions of dollars to become a tourism and commercial hub. The skyline of Riyadh, the capital … Read more

Alibaba’s Taobao launches 3D-capable shopping app ahead of Apple’s mainland release of Vision Pro mixed-reality headset

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The app was rolled out last Friday for use on the US$3,499 mixed-reality headset, which the US tech giant released in February in the United States, the only market where the wearable device is currently available. Apple chief executive Tim Cook has said that the Vision Pro is expected to be available in China this … Read more

Officials promote China-led cyber governance to Belt and Road members during the Digital Silk Road forum in Xian

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Chinese government officials on Tuesday trumpeted the country’s progress in shaping digital development models for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) member states, taking aim at US policies amid an intensifying rivalry with the West. In keynote addresses to the Digital Silk Road (DSR) Development Forum held in Xian, capital of western Shaanxi province, officials said … Read more

Alibaba’s AliExpress pushes ‘10 billion yuan of subsidies’ campaign to entice more Chinese brands and merchants to sell in overseas markets

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The campaign called “10 billion yuan of subsidies” – a typical mainland marketing phrase used to tout large online allotments – will be given to an initial batch of 1,000 Chinese brands and merchants, including those who have already opened a store on Alibaba’s domestic retail platform Tmall, according to an AliExpress statement on Monday. … Read more

ByteDance profit jumps 60% to US$40 billion, taking TikTok’s owner past arch-rival Tencent

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ByteDance’s profit surged roughly 60 per cent in 2023, outpacing the growth of online peers Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding, in a sign of the TikTok owner’s resilience in the face of an economic downturn. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation jumped to more than US$40 billion from about US$25 billion in 2022, … Read more

Alibaba, navigating sea change, reorients business towards bread-and-butter e-commerce and AI, pares down overhaul

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By March 2023, Alibaba had lost three quarters of its value from the peak in October 2020, as the e-commerce giant, once seen as China’s answer to Amazon.com, faces questions on whether it can recapture its former glory while dealing with China’s economic slowdown, regulatory scrutiny and fierce competition from old and new rivals. The … Read more

China’s Suzhou city plans supercharged cross-border e-commerce business after Shein and Temu success

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The hi-tech manufacturing hub of Suzhou has unveiled a plan to double the city’s cross-border e-commerce annually for the next three years, as it looks to tap into the growing influence of Chinese platforms such as Shein and PPD Holdings’ Temu. The municipal government of the city in eastern Jiangsu province has issued a policy … Read more

China added 1 unicorn per week last year despite slumping global investments thanks partly to AI frenzy, report says

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China last year bred an average of one new unicorn each week amid frenzied growth in the country’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector, bucking a declining trend in global venture capital investments, according to a new research report. The nation added 56 unicorns – start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion – in 2023, trailing only … Read more

Jack Ma steps into ‘mistakes’ brouhaha to boost Alibaba’s morale, urges staff to embrace change and prepare for AI to upend e-commerce

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Alibaba Group Holding has fundamentally changed its corporate culture to put customers first in its adaptation of technology, its co-founder Jack Ma wrote, as he stepped into a social media hubbub over the hubris that caused what was once the world’s largest e-commerce platform to lose ground to competitors. “We hacked away at the big-company … Read more

Alibaba connects Taobao and 1688 to tap new users as fierce e-commerce competition ratchets higher

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Alibaba Group Holding is integrating the services of its online wholesale marketplace 1688 with its flagship consumer shopping platform Taobao, as the e-commerce giant continues to consolidate assets amid internal restructuring and rising competition. Taobao has recently featured three online stores under the 1688 name as it pushes to win over new users, according to … Read more