Alibaba: The Giant of e-Commerce

[TaiShang]

Robotic Adventure: E-commerce titan Alibaba invests in humanoid robot Pepper
By Zhou Xiaoyan
July 6, 2015

Masayoshi Son (center), Chairman and CEO of SoftBank, Jack Ma (right), Chairman of Alibaba, and Terry Gou, CEO of Foxconn, pose with Pepper the humanoid robot in Tokyo, Japan, on June 18 (XINHUA/AFP)


Remember BayMax, the personal healthcare companion from Disney's 2014 animated feature film Big Hero 6? Well, it appears that owning such a gentle, loving and caring robot might not be such a distant dream after all.

E-commerce king Alibaba Group recently announced it will invest in a company that has produced Pepper, the world's first personal robot that reads emotions.

According to an agreement reached on June 18, Alibaba and Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxconn will each invest 14.5 billion Japanese yen ($117.45 million) in and hold a 20-percent stake in SoftBank Robotics Holdings Corp. (SBRH), a robotics company under Japan's SoftBank Group. The remaining 60 percent of shares will be held by SoftBank.

As it strives to become a key player in the nascent humanoid robot sector, Alibaba pledged to bring Pepper and other robotics businesses to global markets, and to cooperate with the other two companies with the aim of spreading and developing the robotics industry on a worldwide scale.

Pepper, the human-like robot, is so popular that it sold out in a minute during its consumer release on June 20 in Japan.

Only 1,000 models were available for the consumer launch, with the base price being set at 198,000 Japanese yen ($1,600) with an additional 24,600 Japanese yen ($200) monthly data and insurance fees. This autumn, SBRH plans to launch a dedicated model for enterprises—Pepper for Biz.

Who's Pepper?

About a year back, SBRH introduced the asexual 1.2-meter tall and 28-kg heavy robot—Pepper—which moves around on wheels and wears an iPad as a pendant. Touted by SoftBank as the world's first emotional robot that can read human emotions, the personal humanoid robot has been designed for taking care of elders, assisting school kids with home assignments and delivering digital entertainment.

Unlike the functional robots, Pepper will make people happy by emotionally interacting with people and will help people, enhance their life and facilitate relationships.

"The latest creation from SBRH, Pepper is the first humanoid robot designed to live with humans. At the risk of disappointing you, he doesn't clean, doesn't cook and doesn't have super powers... Pepper is a social robot able to converse with you, recognize and react to your emotions, move and live autonomously," said an introduction to Pepper on the SBRH website.

The introduction also said that to be a true social companion, Pepper needs to be able to understand your emotions. If you burst out laughing, he will know you are in a good mood. If you frown, Pepper will understand that something is bothering you.

Pepper currently has the ability to speak English, French, Japanese and Spanish. In the next few months, there will be more language releases in its app store, which already has around 200 apps.

According to SoftBank, Pepper will not only be able to read emotions—the robot has been designed to have emotions.

Pepper's emotions use emotion functions developed to enable robots to artificially generate their own emotions. These emotion functions in Pepper are modeled on the human release of hormones in response to stimuli absorbed by the five senses, which in turn generate emotions.

Popularity factor

The potentially immense robotics market is a major reason for Alibaba's hefty investment in the sector, as the robotics industry has ascended to the position of a strategic emerging one in many countries.

On May 19, China's State Council unveiled a national plan, dubbed Made in China 2025, which calls for green, intelligent manufacturing, with a focus on quality and Internet integration. The plan aims to lift China from its current position as a powerhouse to a superpower in the manufacturing industry. In the plan, the robotics industry is listed as one of the 10 mainstay industries in China.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, China has become the world's largest robot market in terms of annual sales in 2013 with an annual growth rate of over 25 percent.

China is not the only one that has pinned high hopes on the emerging industry. Some developed countries such as Germany, Japan and the United States have included the robotics industry in their plans to revitalize their domestic manufacturing sector.

A recent report from BI Intelligence, a syndicated research and information service provider, shows that the global market for consumer and business robots is expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2019, as their usage increases from manufacturing assembly lines to offices and households.

"I am very excited that we will partner with Alibaba and Foxconn, and challenge ourselves to go global with our robotics business, including Pepper, as a first step to realize our vision. To bring more smiles to people around the world, we will aim to be the No.1 robotics company," said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank.

According to Jack Ma, Alibaba's Board Chairman, human society is transforming from the information technology (IT) era wherein the main purpose is to control, to the data technology (DT) era, targeted at activating productivity.

The IT era turns humans into robots, whilst the DT era turns robots into humans, backed by big data and cloud computing. In the future, robots will become smarter, or even possess some abilities that were previously exclusive to human beings, such as perception, thought and wisdom, Ma said.

"As we enter the DT era, robotics will become a critical field that catalyzes technological breakthroughs in numerous sectors such as healthcare, public services and intelligent homes," Ma said.

In addition to exploiting the promising robotics market, Alibaba looks to cooperate with SBRH on smart technology.

Zhang Jianfeng, president of Alibaba's retail business, including Tmall, Taobao and Juhuasuan, said investing in SBRH can help Alibaba develop its smart technology.

"Alibaba's smart platforms will roll out cooperation with SBRH on machine vision, voice analysis, home intelligent control and intelligent network security, so as to help Alibaba improve its smart technology," Zhang said.

Alibaba, which boasts a sharp edge in massive user base, cloud storage and computing and big data, also said it will help SBRH research on robotics application and user experience.

According to Ma, leapfrog progress will be made in the robotics industry in the upcoming three decades.

"Robots are going to be as popular as cars and planes, and they will become part of our families," he said.

SoftBank Robotics Holdings Corp.

Founded in July 2014, SoftBank Robotics Holdings Corp. is the SoftBank Group's intermediate holding company responsible for its robotics business. The company develops robots and offers robot-related products and services, including Pepper the humanoid robot.

(Source: SoftBank Group)

Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group was founded in 1999 by 18 people led by Jack Ma, a former English teacher from Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. The company got listed in the New York Stock Exchange on September 19, 2014.

Alibaba Group's major businesses include:

- Taobao.com China's most visited customer-to-customer (C2C) online shopping website

- Tmall.com China's leading online business-to-customer (B2C) mall

- Juhuasuan.com China's most popular online group buying marketplace

- Alibaba.com Leading global wholesale business-to-business (B2B) platform

- AliExpress.com Popular international e-marketplace for consumers

- Alibaba Cloud Computing (aliyun.com) Developer of platforms for cloud computing and data management

- Alipay.com Leading online and mobile payment solution in China

- China Smart Logistics Operator of a logistics information platform

 

[AndrewJin]

What a harmonious picture!
A Chinese from Hangzhou
A pro-unification Taiwanese whose ancestor moved from Shannxi Province to Taiwan in Ming Dynasty
A Japanese Korean whose ancestors moved from China to Korea in 5th-6th century with a Chinese family name(Son)
How integrated East Asia is!

 

[Aepsilons]

Robotic Adventure: E-commerce titan Alibaba invests in humanoid robot Pepper
By Zhou Xiaoyan
July 6, 2015

Masayoshi Son (center), Chairman and CEO of SoftBank, Jack Ma (right), Chairman of Alibaba, and Terry Gou, CEO of Foxconn, pose with Pepper the humanoid robot in Tokyo, Japan, on June 18 (XINHUA/AFP)


Remember BayMax, the personal healthcare companion from Disney's 2014 animated feature film Big Hero 6? Well, it appears that owning such a gentle, loving and caring robot might not be such a distant dream after all.

E-commerce king Alibaba Group recently announced it will invest in a company that has produced Pepper, the world's first personal robot that reads emotions.

According to an agreement reached on June 18, Alibaba and Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxconn will each invest 14.5 billion Japanese yen ($117.45 million) in and hold a 20-percent stake in SoftBank Robotics Holdings Corp. (SBRH), a robotics company under Japan's SoftBank Group. The remaining 60 percent of shares will be held by SoftBank.

As it strives to become a key player in the nascent humanoid robot sector, Alibaba pledged to bring Pepper and other robotics businesses to global markets, and to cooperate with the other two companies with the aim of spreading and developing the robotics industry on a worldwide scale.

Pepper, the human-like robot, is so popular that it sold out in a minute during its consumer release on June 20 in Japan.

Only 1,000 models were available for the consumer launch, with the base price being set at 198,000 Japanese yen ($1,600) with an additional 24,600 Japanese yen ($200) monthly data and insurance fees. This autumn, SBRH plans to launch a dedicated model for enterprises—Pepper for Biz.

Who's Pepper?

About a year back, SBRH introduced the asexual 1.2-meter tall and 28-kg heavy robot—Pepper—which moves around on wheels and wears an iPad as a pendant. Touted by SoftBank as the world's first emotional robot that can read human emotions, the personal humanoid robot has been designed for taking care of elders, assisting school kids with home assignments and delivering digital entertainment.

Unlike the functional robots, Pepper will make people happy by emotionally interacting with people and will help people, enhance their life and facilitate relationships.

"The latest creation from SBRH, Pepper is the first humanoid robot designed to live with humans. At the risk of disappointing you, he doesn't clean, doesn't cook and doesn't have super powers... Pepper is a social robot able to converse with you, recognize and react to your emotions, move and live autonomously," said an introduction to Pepper on the SBRH website.

The introduction also said that to be a true social companion, Pepper needs to be able to understand your emotions. If you burst out laughing, he will know you are in a good mood. If you frown, Pepper will understand that something is bothering you.

Pepper currently has the ability to speak English, French, Japanese and Spanish. In the next few months, there will be more language releases in its app store, which already has around 200 apps.

According to SoftBank, Pepper will not only be able to read emotions—the robot has been designed to have emotions.

Pepper's emotions use emotion functions developed to enable robots to artificially generate their own emotions. These emotion functions in Pepper are modeled on the human release of hormones in response to stimuli absorbed by the five senses, which in turn generate emotions.

Popularity factor

The potentially immense robotics market is a major reason for Alibaba's hefty investment in the sector, as the robotics industry has ascended to the position of a strategic emerging one in many countries.

On May 19, China's State Council unveiled a national plan, dubbed Made in China 2025, which calls for green, intelligent manufacturing, with a focus on quality and Internet integration. The plan aims to lift China from its current position as a powerhouse to a superpower in the manufacturing industry. In the plan, the robotics industry is listed as one of the 10 mainstay industries in China.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, China has become the world's largest robot market in terms of annual sales in 2013 with an annual growth rate of over 25 percent.

China is not the only one that has pinned high hopes on the emerging industry. Some developed countries such as Germany, Japan and the United States have included the robotics industry in their plans to revitalize their domestic manufacturing sector.

A recent report from BI Intelligence, a syndicated research and information service provider, shows that the global market for consumer and business robots is expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2019, as their usage increases from manufacturing assembly lines to offices and households.

"I am very excited that we will partner with Alibaba and Foxconn, and challenge ourselves to go global with our robotics business, including Pepper, as a first step to realize our vision. To bring more smiles to people around the world, we will aim to be the No.1 robotics company," said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank.

According to Jack Ma, Alibaba's Board Chairman, human society is transforming from the information technology (IT) era wherein the main purpose is to control, to the data technology (DT) era, targeted at activating productivity.

The IT era turns humans into robots, whilst the DT era turns robots into humans, backed by big data and cloud computing. In the future, robots will become smarter, or even possess some abilities that were previously exclusive to human beings, such as perception, thought and wisdom, Ma said.

"As we enter the DT era, robotics will become a critical field that catalyzes technological breakthroughs in numerous sectors such as healthcare, public services and intelligent homes," Ma said.

In addition to exploiting the promising robotics market, Alibaba looks to cooperate with SBRH on smart technology.

Zhang Jianfeng, president of Alibaba's retail business, including Tmall, Taobao and Juhuasuan, said investing in SBRH can help Alibaba develop its smart technology.

"Alibaba's smart platforms will roll out cooperation with SBRH on machine vision, voice analysis, home intelligent control and intelligent network security, so as to help Alibaba improve its smart technology," Zhang said.

Alibaba, which boasts a sharp edge in massive user base, cloud storage and computing and big data, also said it will help SBRH research on robotics application and user experience.

According to Ma, leapfrog progress will be made in the robotics industry in the upcoming three decades.

"Robots are going to be as popular as cars and planes, and they will become part of our families," he said.

SoftBank Robotics Holdings Corp.

Founded in July 2014, SoftBank Robotics Holdings Corp. is the SoftBank Group's intermediate holding company responsible for its robotics business. The company develops robots and offers robot-related products and services, including Pepper the humanoid robot.

(Source: SoftBank Group)

Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group was founded in 1999 by 18 people led by Jack Ma, a former English teacher from Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. The company got listed in the New York Stock Exchange on September 19, 2014.

Alibaba Group's major businesses include:

- Taobao.com China's most visited customer-to-customer (C2C) online shopping website

- Tmall.com China's leading online business-to-customer (B2C) mall

- Juhuasuan.com China's most popular online group buying marketplace

- Alibaba.com Leading global wholesale business-to-business (B2B) platform

- AliExpress.com Popular international e-marketplace for consumers

- Alibaba Cloud Computing (aliyun.com) Developer of platforms for cloud computing and data management

- Alipay.com Leading online and mobile payment solution in China

- China Smart Logistics Operator of a logistics information platform

East Asian Dynamic !!

Love it!!

 

[TaiShang]

What a harmonious picture!
A Chinese from Hangzhou
A pro-unification Taiwanese whose ancestor moved from Shannxi Province to Taiwan in Ming Dynasty
A Japanese Korean whose ancestors moved from China to Korea in 5th-6th century with a Chinese family name(Son)
How integrated East Asia is!

 

[TaiShang]

Alibaba plans to set up more data centers in overseas
July 23, 2015

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's cloud computing unit said on Wednesday it will soon open a second data center in the United States, highlighting the company's efforts to expand abroad.

Li Jin, senior product director of Aliyun Cloud Computing, said at a news conference in Beijing that the company will launch the new US center within several months, as part of the company's broad plan to be a global cloud service provider.

Li did not give details of the new center, but added that the company will set up more data centers in Singapore, Europe and Japan within a year.

Established in 2009, Aliyun accounts for only a small portion of Alibaba's business, but it has been seeing steady growth both at home and abroad.

In May, the company entered the Middle East market by setting up a joint venture with Meraas Holding LLC to provide cloud services in the region. That followed the opening in March of its first overseas data center in Silicon Valley in the US.

According to International Data Corp, public cloud services could grow into a $100 billionindustry by 2017.

Gene Cao, a senior analyst at Internet consultancy Forrester Research Inc, said: "Aliyun isnot competent enough to take clients from international players such as Amazon.com Incand Microsoft Corp. Its target customers are Chinese companies that are expandingoverseas."

But Aliyun has the potential to become a big service provider in the international arena ofcloud computing, Cao said.

Aliyun said it will build an international content delivery network by cooperating withlocal partners. The network, once established, will shorten the time needed to deliver Webcontent from foreign countries to consumers in China and vice versa.

"We operate the largest content delivery network in China," Li said.

"But it is not enough. Going global is one of the key strategies of Alibaba. Aliyun will helprealize the goal with an overseas content delivery network."

Aliyun is the largest provider of public cloud services in China where its major rivalTencent Holdings Ltd is also eyeing a piece of the lucrative business. Aliyun said it nowserves more than 1.4 million customers.

Ma Si contributed to this story.

 

[Dubious]

I found this interesting

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=834355316632702

 

[Edison Chen]

Korean subtitle? LOL.

 

[Dubious]

Korean subtitle? LOL.

Hmmm....I think it was aired on Korean tv maybe? Not sure...

KBS1 or something

 

[Edison Chen]

"Don't worry, any mistake is an income, a wonderful revenue for you. "

Jack Ma is a legendary person for young people in China, his success inspired them to start their own business.

----------------------------------------------

People may know Alibaba group, which was started by Jack Ma, they may not hear of Ant Financial Service Group, Jack Ma's another masterpiece.

Ant Financial Services Group owns and operates an online payment platform; offers mobile payment services; sells insurance products online; provides small loans to the businesses that set up virtual storefronts on Alibaba’s retail websites. Ant Financial Services Group was formerly known as Zhejiang Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Company, Ltd. and changed its name to Ant Financial Services Group in October 2014. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in China. Ant Financial Services Group operates as a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Limited.

Alibaba Group’s financial affiliate is planning an initial public offering in mainland China in 2017, reported the state-run Shanghai Securities News, citing documents it obtained from asset management firm CDH Investments.

Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group is valued at $ 35 billion to $ 40 billion. Before going public, it is raising 20 to 25 billion yuan in a private placement with investors including China’s National Social Security Fund, Postal Savings Bank of China and CDB Capital, the investment arm of China Development Bank, according to Shanghai Securities News.

Investors in the initial round of fundraising will buy a total of 10% of Ant Financial through a fund sold by CDH Investments, reported the newspaper.

Miranda Shek, an Ant Financial spokeswoman, says the company doesn’t have an IPO timetable. CDH didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.

In November, Alibaba Group’s executive chairman Jack Ma said the finance services arm will “definitely go public.” Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai said later that Alibaba is looking to list the Ant Financial Services Group on mainland exchanges.

Alibaba’s record $25 billion IPO last year didn’t include Ant Financial. Under the terms of a revised profit-sharing agreement in August, the group shares 37.5% of Ant Financial’s profit and can in the future take a direct stake in it.

Ant Financial, which processes Alibaba’s payment system Alipay, also runs Yu’E Bao, a fund that controls more than 570 billion yuan. It is also looking to launch an Internet bank in June, Yu Shengfa, Ant Financial’s vice president, said in January.

The spinoff of Alipay in 2011 has prompted heavy criticism from shareholder Yahoo, who said it wasn’t consulted at the time.

Alipay, the largest mobile payment platform worldwide, has more than 300 million registered users in China and handles more than 80 million transactions daily. It is mobile application, Alipay Wallet, has 190 million active users.

Alibaba Finance Arm Ant Financial Plans 2017 IPO - Forbes

蚂蚁金服

 

[Raphael]

Alibaba hires former Goldman banker Evans as president| Reuters

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) has hired former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) partner Michael Evans to oversee the e-commerce company's international expansion, a top priority as the firm looks beyond China to sustain its heady growth rates.

Evans, who spent two decades at the investment bank in positions including vice chairman and head of Asia, has occupied a board seat at Alibaba since mid-2014, before the company held a record-setting public listing in New York.

Alibaba, by far the largest e-commerce player in China, said hiring Evans signaled its intention to ramp up cross-border commerce in earnest after it spent years focusing on securing its domestic market position.

Top executives have long touted the idea that connecting increasingly wealthy Chinese consumers with, say, South American meat producers or European toy makers would generate billions in additional revenue for the firm.

Evans, who once headed Goldman's equity underwriting arm, has no direct experience in e-commerce but is trusted by Alibaba's management, having known founder Jack Ma and Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai for years.

He will continue as a management director and lead Alibaba' growth strategy outside of China, reporting directly to Chief Executive Daniel Zhang, the company said. His position is newly created.

Zhang said in a statement that glamorization is Alibaba Group's most important strategy for the coming decades.

He added that Evans has been "a close advisor to Alibaba Group for many years, and we greatly value his deep knowledge of our business, his experience as a proven business builder and leader globally, and his more than 20 years of experience in China."

 

[cirr]

Alibaba Buys 19.9% Of Chinese Retail Giant Suning For $4.63B

Posted 4 hours ago by Jon Russell (@jonrussell)

Alibaba may be using the internet to let merchants reach Chinese consumers, but the e-commerce giant still retains an interest in brick and mortar retail. How much of an interest, you ask? Enough to invest RMB28.3 billion (that’s around $4.63 billion) in retail giant Suning, an offline rival to its business.

The deal gives Alibaba a 19.9 percent stake in the retailer, which is one of China’s highest-profile electronics sellers with more than 1,600 retail stores across 289 cities in China. As part of the alliance, Suning is shelling out as much as RMB14 billion (approximately US$2.28 billion) to take a 1.1 percent stake in Alibaba. In addition, Suning is adding its might to Alibaba’s logistics affiliate, Cainiao. As a partner, Suning will pair its logistical reach — which it said covers 90 percent of China via eight national national distribution centers, 57 regional distribution centers, 353 city forwarding centers and over 1,700 last-mile delivery stations — with Cainiao to help customers receive orders quicker.

That’s just one area where the two retail giants will combine. Online-to-offline, a major trend to e-commerce in China right now, is another obvious focus. Neither side is being too specific, but Alibaba said that in the future consumers could enjoy “a physical experience” with products in a store, while ordering and paying for their purchase using their phone and Alibaba’s Alipay service. Likewise, other synergies will include physical after-sales support in store for purchases made online via Alibaba services. (Suning claims to have over 3,000 after-sales service locations, and a further 5,000 via affiliates.)

Alibaba has been very vocal about gunning down old style, offline retailers, but this alliance shows a shift in its thinking. Rather than taking on physical rivals that are weak were Alibaba is strong, it is joining forces to maximum the strengths of both sides. Given the sheer scale that companies like Suning enjoy in China, teaming up and expanding Alibaba’s touchpoints with consumers could unlock new potential.

That’s the theory that Alibaba founder Jack Ma is buying into, at least.

“Over the past two decades, e-commerce has become an inextricable part of the lives of Chinese consumers, and this new alliance brings forth a new commerce model that fully integrates online and offline.” Ma said in a canned comment.

“This collaboration signals a new trend in the Internet age: Strengthening China’s traditional industries by leveraging the power of Internet,” Ma’s counterpart, Suning Chairman Zhang Jindong added via a statement. “It will also help transform China’s manufacturing industry and broaden the global horizons of Chinese brands.”

Alibaba and Suning in $6.9bn strategic partnership

 

[TaiShang]

Norinco Group, Alibaba to offer positioning services using Beidou system
2015-8-18 17:12:53


China North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco Group) and e-commerce giant Alibaba have set up a joint firm to provide location-based services using China's Beidou navigation system.

The Shanghai-based firm has 2 billion yuan (about 310 million US dollars) in registered capital, with the two companies both holding a 50-percent share, according to Norinco Group.

The joint venture plans to offer location-based services and solutions to businesses using the country's Beidou Navigation Satellite system and online networks.

Named after the Chinese term for the Big Dipper, the Beidou project was formally launched in 1994, some 20 years after the inception of GPS.

Beidou is currently one of four dominant navigation systems worldwide, along with the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, and the European Union's Galileo. Norinco Group is the company authorized for research and application of the system.

 

[cirr]

September 1, 2015

Quantum Computing and Alibaba's Leap of Faith

By Yu Dawei

Wires and switches of a vintage supercomputer on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, January 19, 2011, as part of an exhibit called ‘Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing,’ featuring over 1,000 artifacts and 100 multimedia stations exploring every major aspect of the history of computing.

Building a quantum computer that processes data at speeds trillions of times faster than the world’s fastest computer, China’s supercomputer Tianhe-2, is the goal of a potentially game-changing venture launched by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

If the project succeeds, the enormous impact of a lightning-speed computer based in China could make all of the advances wrought by computerization worldwide over the past five decades look like baby steps.

Quantum computer technology has been a key focus in recent years for researchers at tech companies and governments around the world. Investing heavily in the search for ever-faster data processing based on quantum mechanics have been Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., International Business Machines Corp., and major research agencies.

The U.S. government’s space agency, NASA, has partnered since 2013 with Google and the Universities Space Research Association to conduct research at the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab in Silicon Valley.

Alibaba has now become the first tech firm in China to join the international quest for commercial applications of accelerated computational capacity on a massive scale. The e-commerce giant did so by announcing in late July that its cloud-computing unit, Aliyun, had formed a 15-year partnership with CAS, a major government research body, to open the Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory in Shanghai.

Lab supporters hope the country’s next-generation computer will feature not only tremendous computing capacity but potentially foolproof cryptography. A quantum computer could also offer fine-tuned processing for a variety of applications, from weather forecasting and stock market analysis to astronomical research.

Alibaba pledged to support the lab with 30 million yuan a year over the next five years. A renowned quantum physics scientist, Pan Jianwei, was hired to serve as the lab’s lead scientist.

Alibaba and CAS said in a statement that researchers will work to overcome major technological hurdles that restrict quantum computing and build quantum simulations of today’s fastest computers. By 2030, the lab is expected to have developed a general-purpose quantum computer prototype with 50 to 100 “quantum bits,” also called “qubits,” the basic units of quantum information.

Traditional computer processors store information in binary bits represented by a 0 or 1. Quantum processors use qubits, each of which can hold both a 0 and 1. In theory, a quantum computer with 40 qubits can quickly finish calculations that could take dozens of years for a traditional computer with 1,024 bits.

Lu Zhaoyang, a researcher at the Alibaba-CAS lab and professor of quantum physics at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, in the eastern province of Anhui, said a quantum computation that uses 45 qubits would be equivalent to the calculation capacity of the Tianhe-2. This means that a quantum computer capable of processing hundreds of qubits or more would leave a traditional supercomputer in the dust.

Commercial Interest

Alibaba’s investment in the lab falls far short of what other big companies have spent on similar research. IBM, for example, has committed U.S.$3 billion since 2014. But Alibaba’s initiative is the largest-ever investment in a major scientific initiative by a private company in China. And it’s a groundbreaking move, as historically major companies in the country rarely if ever get involved in cutting-edge scientific research.

The lab’s directors plan to recruit leading scientists from around the world to join Pan’s quantum computing research team. They also plan to tap Aliyun’s commercial expertise in the area of cloud computing.

“The laboratory will combine the technical advantages that Aliyun has in classical calculation algorithms, structures, and cloud computing with those of CAS in the areas of quantum computing, quantum analog computing, and quantum artificial intelligence,” the Alibaba-CAS statement said.

The lab’s scientists will be aiming to “break the bottlenecks of Moore’s Law and classic computing,” the statement said. Moore’s Law is a prediction made by American businessman Gordon Moore in 1965 that classical computers’ speed is decided by the number of transistors they have, and that number doubles every two years. The law accurately described the development of computing power over the past decades, but quantum computing may change the picture of the future.

Cloud computing technology, which is commonly used commercially, has enhanced the value of data processing capacity. And for companies such as Aliyun, anything that can accelerate data crunching and expand data storage is a good investment target.

Wang Jian, Alibaba’s chief technology officer, said quantum computing will likely extend the technology’s reach into new fields by improving communications and overcoming computational barriers, which are the top technological concerns of companies whose businesses rely on the Internet.

Alibaba will benefit from research at the new lab by getting access to future technological developments at the ground level, he said.

About two years ago, long before the plan for a new lab emerged, Alibaba officials had sought out Pan and his team. They wanted the scientists to help them find commercial applications for quantum computing. “We approached them at first” for negotiations, Wang said. But the talks went nowhere. Alibaba officials eventually had to admit that the technology was too immature for commercialization.

Companies worldwide hoping to benefit from quantum computing have come face-to-face with a variety of barriers, the biggest of which are money and time.

Quantum computing research is not only costly but also time-consuming. Peter Bentley, a computer science professor at the University of London, told the media after the launch of the Google-NASA lab that Google might have to spend billions of dollars and support scientists for several decades before seeing any concrete benefits tied to quantum computing research.

But Alibaba got involved because it saw this nascent technology as a great opportunity for the future, Wang said.

“The company is willing to act as a bridge, to serve as a voice for quantum computing technology,” he said. “It’s a rare opportunity to use technology to win a market.”

Yet Alibaba’s commitment is not exactly a plunge. Wang said the company should invest more than 30 million yuan a year. It will certainly have to decide in coming years whether to extend the investment, he said. And it will base that decision on the value of the lab’s research results.

Practical Arrangement

Most of the money that Alibaba plans to sink into the lab will be used to hire scientists, Lu said. Meanwhile, the government-backed CAS’ share of the funding will go toward equipment purchases and the lab’s general operations.

Terms of the cooperative agreement also give CAS the rights to all intellectual property connected to the research. But Alibaba has the right to buy those rights ahead of all other potential buyers.

Partnering with a company like Alibaba will help point the lab’s researchers in a practical direction, said Zhou Zhengwei, a researcher at the Beijing-based CAS Laboratory of Quantum Information, which focuses on quantum optics theory studies. Commercial involvement should also have a positive impact on the lab’s team in terms of access to resources and management, he said.

“It will help promote more practical research,” he said. “Industry has a clear target and allows approaches that are difficult to practice under the academic system.”

Indeed, Zhou is sure quantum computing research in China will get a big boost through this academic-industry partnership.

However, other researchers said that lab research into quantum computing and building a commercially viable quantum computer are two very different projects. For example, any commercial endeavor would weigh several non-scientific factors such as practicality and cost into the research.

In early 2011, a Canadian company called D-Wave Systems Inc. developed what it claimed was “the world’s first commercially available quantum computer,” calling it D-Wave One. A year later, the more advanced D-Wave Two was released. Google, the U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, and other companies bought models of the computer for U.S.$10 million each.

Many scientists have argued that the D-Wave is not a real quantum computer, based on the speed of its computations. They say the model does not significantly accelerate computing over traditional supercomputers.

But technological advancements around the world are continuing. In April, IBM said it had invented a superconducting chip with the capacity for four qubits. The chip’s development has been viewed as a breakthrough for quantum computer processors.

Moreover, a solid foundation for building chips and computers has been laid thanks to years of research focusing on quantum computation theory, said Zhao Shiping, a CAS physicist. The next step will be to apply that global wealth of theoretical knowledge through practical applications, Zhao said.

Wang said that theory and practice in the quantum computing field have almost nothing in common.

“We know quantum computing is feasible,” he said. “But nobody knows what a quantum computer will look like.”

Quantum Computing and Alibaba’s Leap of Faith | ChinaFile

 

[mpk1988]

Quantum computing cannot be realised for a few more decades. Lots of things to iron out. Fundamental breakthroughs required. Tight now, DWave systems and Google are at the top. The work at MRC and DARPA are shrouded in mystery.

Rest assured, once true quantum computing is realised.. i.e quantum teleportation, superposition, tunnelling, duality etc.. Then Singularity and the stuff of future will not be far behind..

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Quantum computing cannot be realised for a few more decades. Lots of things to iron out. Fundamental breakthroughs required. Tight now, DWave systems and Google are at the top. The work at MRC and DARPA are shrouded in mystery.

Rest assured, once true quantum computing is realised.. i.e quantum teleportation, superposition, tunnelling, duality etc.. Then Singularity and the stuff of future will not be far behind..

tunneling is already used in flash memory lol. what did you think that "tunneling oxide" is for?