Alibaba’s Taobao cuts fees for merchants and subsidises content as it seeks to protect its market lead, reports say

Alibaba’s Taobao cuts fees for merchants and subsidises content as it seeks to protect its market lead, reports say Taobao, the main e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group Holding, has decided to increase subsidies and cut fees for merchants as China’s largest online marketplace moves to defend its lead amid increasing competition, according to local media … Read more

Alibaba’s AliExpress eyes European success with Euro2024 football sponsorship, after rival Temu cracked US market with Super Bowl ads

Alibaba Group Holding’s international e-commerce platform AliExpress is betting on a European market breakthrough by sponsoring this year’s European Football Championship, or Euro 2024, a move that comes after its rival Temu cracked the US market through ads that ran in the Super Bowl. AliExpress is the first exclusive e-commerce platform partner for the national … Read more

Chinese generative AI developers rush to upgrade chat bots to handle super long texts

China’s biggest generative artificial intelligence (AI) developers, including Baidu and Alibaba Group Holding, have rushed to upgrade their chat bots so they can handle super long texts of up to 10 million Chinese characters. The move follows Google, which in February unveiled the latest version of its Gemini large language model (LLM) that achieves a … Read more

Alibaba’s Damo Academy plans to launch latest version of its XuanTie RISC-V processor this year

Damo Academy, Alibaba Group Holding’s research arm, expects to launch the next-generation of its XuanTie series of RISC-V processors – the C930 – this year, in the latest effort to counter the impact of tighter US trade restrictions on exports of advanced chip technologies to China. Damo Academy showcased the next iteration of its XuanTie … Read more

Alibaba pushes AI tools to merchants wanting to tap overseas markets, as competition with Temu and Shein heats up

Alibaba International has launched a new campaign to promote its artificial intelligence (AI) tools aimed at helping merchants to tap overseas markets on Alibaba.com, in the latest push to expand cross-border e-commerce business. The new campaign says Alibaba’s generative AI tools can be used to “lower the threshold for entering into global trade” via its … Read more

Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai says e-commerce giant he co-founded is set to bounce back in CNBC interview

Alibaba Group Holding is set for a comeback after several years of rising competition and macroeconomic pressures, according to the company’s co-founder and chairman Joe Tsai, who is backing the Chinese e-commerce giant to bounce back. Alibaba is “a lot more confident” about its position as one of China’s top e-commerce players as it undergoes … Read more

Shein, Temu and other e-commerce retailers are upending global air cargo industry

The rapid rise of fast-fashion e-commerce retailers such as Shein and Temu is upending the global air cargo industry, as they increasingly vie for limited air-cargo space to woo consumers with rapid delivery times, industry sources say. Shein, PDD Group’s Temu and ByteDance’s TikTok Shop, which recently launched online shopping in the U.S., ship the majority … Read more

Overseas Chinese tourists boost consumer spending in Year of the Dragon as Alipay transactions increase 7 per cent from 2019

The Year of the Dragon may have signalled the return of the overseas Chinese tourist, with preliminary data from popular payment service Alipay showing an increase in transactions this year compared with 2019, the last time international borders were open before the onset of the pandemic. Alipay operator Ant Group, the fintech business affiliated with … Read more

Ant Group inks strategic partnership with Shanghai to help the city’s AI ambitions

Ant Group and the Shanghai municipal government have struck a partnership that would see the two parties deepen their collaboration in fields such as blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). Under the partnership, Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, will “actively participate in building [an] artificial intelligence industry ecosystem and blockchain innovation platform … Read more

Chinese consumers offered double-priced Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headsets in grey market ahead of official launch

Chinese consumers offered double-priced Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headsets in grey market ahead of official launch A grey market for Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset is emerging in China, with resellers doubling the official price to lure enthusiasts ahead of its official release next month. Dozens of merchants are offering to ship supplies … Read more