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Alibaba: The Giant of e-Commerce

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Taobao village gets ready for shopping spree on 11/11

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A delivery guy transports goods for the upcoming "Double Eleven" online shopping festival in Wantou village, Boxing county, Binzhou city, East China's Shandong province, on November 9, 2016. "Double Eleven", dubbed as the Chinese version of "Black Friday", falls on November 11 each year and was originally initiated by Taobao in 2009. It's later joined by other e-commerce conglomerates such as JD.com and developed into China's biggest annual online shopping spree. Wantou village is one of China's top 100 Taobao villages. [Photo/VCG]
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Villagers prepare their goods for the upcoming "Double Eleven" online shopping festival in Wantou village, Boxing county, Binzhou city, East China's Shandong province, on November 9, 2016. Thanks to their promotions on Nov 11, Chinese online retailers could generate up to $20 billion sales this year, a 40 percent increase on last year's gross merchandise volume of $14.3 billion, according to Fung Global Retail & Technology. [Photo/VCG]
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Villagers prepare their goods for the upcoming "Double Eleven" online shopping festival in Wantou village, Boxing county, Binzhou city, East China's Shandong province, on November 9, 2016. [Photo/VCG]
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Villagers prepare their goods for the upcoming "Double Eleven" online shopping festival in Wantou village, Boxing county, Binzhou city, East China's Shandong province, on November 9, 2016. [Photo/VCG]
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Villagers prepare their goods for the upcoming "Double Eleven" online shopping festival in Wantou village, Boxing county, Binzhou city, East China's Shandong province, on November 9, 2016. [Photo/VCG]
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Villagers prepare their goods for the upcoming "Double Eleven" online shopping festival in Wantou village, Boxing county, Binzhou city, East China's Shandong province, on November 9, 2016. [Photo/VCG]
 
Singles Day shopping spree this year 'crazier than ever'
(China Daily) November 10, 2016

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A courier carries packages at a sorting facility of STO Express Ltd in Fuyang, Anhui province, during the Nov 11 shopping festival last year. More pictures

Singles Day sales are set to get crazier this year, with transactions and deliveries expected to break records amid public concerns about quality.

The shopping festival is the world's largest online sales event.

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, which created the annual November 11 event, is expected to reach a new high on Friday, with a 40 percent surge as bargain-hunting Chinese consumers flex their spending muscle, according to a report released on Nov 2.

Singles Day sales at Alibaba this year are expected to jump to $20 billion from last year's $14.3 billion. The 2015 figure represented a year-on-year increase of 54 percent, the report said.

The shopping spree is a peak season for the logistics industry.

China Post, China's postal service, estimated that 760 million packages will be generated by Singles Day sales, compared with 540 million last year. Couriers have advertised to hire extra people to handle the seasonal workload increase.

"Singles Day 2016 is expected to be bigger than ever. It's no longer just a one-day online shopping festival, with retailers introducing promotions that start before and end after November 11," said Wang Xiaofeng, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

"It is also going global, extending beyond China and Asia to include many international retailers who offer attractive discounts and more efficient cross-border shipping," she said.

Cut-to-the-bone prices used to be the main driver of the event. But a recent report from Nielsen said that apart from sales and discounts, the quality of goods is also a main factor in determining which e-commerce company consumers choose.

Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang said the ministry will cooperate with other government organizations to monitor the behavior of e-commerce platforms during the event.

Companies set up robotic package sorting lines
(China Daily) November 10, 2016

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Workers monitor an auto-sorting line at a facility of ZTO Express Inc in Shanghai. Courier companies are gearing up for the upcoming Singles Day shopping festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In order to deliver the more than 1 billion packages from merchants to buyers during the Singles Day shopping frenzy, the nation's major couriers have launched auto-sorting systems to enhance their efficiency and accuracy.

As the country's biggest shopping festival, the Singles Day event is putting great pressure on domestic express companies.

According to estimates by the China Express Association and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's logistics service offshoot Cainiao, China's fast delivery industry will have to handle 1.05 billion packages throughout the annual shopping carnival, up 35 percent year-on-year.

So it becomes critical for industry players to further raise their handling efficiency, and some major express companies are mechanizing, or auto-sorting, part of the process.

Yunda Express (Shanghai) Co Ltd has installed a set of 200-meter-long sorting lines, with more than 300 trays, in a Shanghai transit center.

"We are ready to launch a second line before Nov 11. The facility can handle more than 20,000 packages per hour and it can operate without any break for more than 20 hours a day," said Lai Shiqiang, operations vice-president of Yunda.

According to Lai, Yunda launched the Shanghai auto-sorting facility ahead of last year's Nov 11 shopping festival, The 20 million yuan ($2.95 million) facility cuts staff number from 200 in peak days down to around 40, with the accuracy rate increasing from 95 percent to 99 percent.

The Shanghai-based company expects its orders during the Singles Day sales period will increase 50 percent from last year.

To get fully prepared this year, the company has restructured and expanded more than 10 transit centers, added 16,000 vehicles and hired 30,000 temporary staff, and introduced brand new automatic sorting equipment in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

"Yunda will also install 300 sets of automatic collection systems at its transit centers to double the package collection speed to 2,500 packages per hour," added Lai.

Some other big-name courier companies, such as the New York Stock Exchange-listed ZTO Express Inc, STO Express Ltd, which is waiting to list, and Shenzhen-based SF Express (Group) Co, have also installed auto-sorting facilities.

"Apart from the auto-sorting facilities in operation in the eastern China region since last year, STO added similar equipment at its eight main new transit centers, including Zhengzhou of Henan province, Panjin of Liaoning province and Wuhan of Hubei province," said Sara Gu, marketing director of STO.

According to Gu, the auto-sorting will save 80 percent on manpower and raise efficiency by 75 percent.

In early 2016, STO became the nation's first courier to launch robotic sorting in Yiwu, Zhejiang province. It launched the second trial in Tianjin in October.

Sorting lines operated by robots handle 2 and 3 times the amount of that can be done by human sorters, with error rates going down to nearly nil.

"Auto-sorting and robot sorting will be the trend, and we expect to have all of STO's 81 major transit centers using such smart facilities soon," added Gu.

**

Cheap and excessive labor might not be so crucial for explosive growth, anymore.
 
Singles Day shopping spree this year 'crazier than ever'
(China Daily) November 10, 2016

FOREIGN201611100942000406427857035.jpg


A courier carries packages at a sorting facility of STO Express Ltd in Fuyang, Anhui province, during the Nov 11 shopping festival last year. More pictures

Singles Day sales are set to get crazier this year, with transactions and deliveries expected to break records amid public concerns about quality.

The shopping festival is the world's largest online sales event.

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, which created the annual November 11 event, is expected to reach a new high on Friday, with a 40 percent surge as bargain-hunting Chinese consumers flex their spending muscle, according to a report released on Nov 2.

Singles Day sales at Alibaba this year are expected to jump to $20 billion from last year's $14.3 billion. The 2015 figure represented a year-on-year increase of 54 percent, the report said.

The shopping spree is a peak season for the logistics industry.

China Post, China's postal service, estimated that 760 million packages will be generated by Singles Day sales, compared with 540 million last year. Couriers have advertised to hire extra people to handle the seasonal workload increase.

"Singles Day 2016 is expected to be bigger than ever. It's no longer just a one-day online shopping festival, with retailers introducing promotions that start before and end after November 11," said Wang Xiaofeng, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

"It is also going global, extending beyond China and Asia to include many international retailers who offer attractive discounts and more efficient cross-border shipping," she said.

Cut-to-the-bone prices used to be the main driver of the event. But a recent report from Nielsen said that apart from sales and discounts, the quality of goods is also a main factor in determining which e-commerce company consumers choose.

Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang said the ministry will cooperate with other government organizations to monitor the behavior of e-commerce platforms during the event.

Companies set up robotic package sorting lines
(China Daily) November 10, 2016

FOREIGN201611101021000051581236936.jpg


Workers monitor an auto-sorting line at a facility of ZTO Express Inc in Shanghai. Courier companies are gearing up for the upcoming Singles Day shopping festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In order to deliver the more than 1 billion packages from merchants to buyers during the Singles Day shopping frenzy, the nation's major couriers have launched auto-sorting systems to enhance their efficiency and accuracy.

As the country's biggest shopping festival, the Singles Day event is putting great pressure on domestic express companies.

According to estimates by the China Express Association and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's logistics service offshoot Cainiao, China's fast delivery industry will have to handle 1.05 billion packages throughout the annual shopping carnival, up 35 percent year-on-year.

So it becomes critical for industry players to further raise their handling efficiency, and some major express companies are mechanizing, or auto-sorting, part of the process.

Yunda Express (Shanghai) Co Ltd has installed a set of 200-meter-long sorting lines, with more than 300 trays, in a Shanghai transit center.

"We are ready to launch a second line before Nov 11. The facility can handle more than 20,000 packages per hour and it can operate without any break for more than 20 hours a day," said Lai Shiqiang, operations vice-president of Yunda.

According to Lai, Yunda launched the Shanghai auto-sorting facility ahead of last year's Nov 11 shopping festival, The 20 million yuan ($2.95 million) facility cuts staff number from 200 in peak days down to around 40, with the accuracy rate increasing from 95 percent to 99 percent.

The Shanghai-based company expects its orders during the Singles Day sales period will increase 50 percent from last year.

To get fully prepared this year, the company has restructured and expanded more than 10 transit centers, added 16,000 vehicles and hired 30,000 temporary staff, and introduced brand new automatic sorting equipment in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

"Yunda will also install 300 sets of automatic collection systems at its transit centers to double the package collection speed to 2,500 packages per hour," added Lai.

Some other big-name courier companies, such as the New York Stock Exchange-listed ZTO Express Inc, STO Express Ltd, which is waiting to list, and Shenzhen-based SF Express (Group) Co, have also installed auto-sorting facilities.

"Apart from the auto-sorting facilities in operation in the eastern China region since last year, STO added similar equipment at its eight main new transit centers, including Zhengzhou of Henan province, Panjin of Liaoning province and Wuhan of Hubei province," said Sara Gu, marketing director of STO.

According to Gu, the auto-sorting will save 80 percent on manpower and raise efficiency by 75 percent.

In early 2016, STO became the nation's first courier to launch robotic sorting in Yiwu, Zhejiang province. It launched the second trial in Tianjin in October.

Sorting lines operated by robots handle 2 and 3 times the amount of that can be done by human sorters, with error rates going down to nearly nil.

"Auto-sorting and robot sorting will be the trend, and we expect to have all of STO's 81 major transit centers using such smart facilities soon," added Gu.

**

Cheap and excessive labor might not be so crucial for explosive growth, anymore.


China Post, China's postal service, estimated that 760 million packages will be generated by Singles Day sales, compared with 540 million last year. Couriers have advertised to hire extra people to handle the seasonal workload increase.

i‘ll buy some small electronic devices.

Smart rice cooker!

 
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/21/alib...s-steps-up-challenge-to-amazon-microsoft.html
Alibaba Cloud expands data centers as its steps up challenge to Amazon, Microsoft
Arjun Kharpal | @ArjunKharpal
59 Mins AgoCNBC.com
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Alibaba is planning to launch four new data centers across the world, the Chinese e-commerce giant said on Monday, as it steps up its competition against Amazon and Microsoft in the rapidly-growing cloud computing market.

The data centers will be located in Dubai, Tokyo in Japan, Germany and Sydney, Australia. It takes the number of Alibaba Cloud data centers outside of China to eight, with the Chinese technology giant now on nearly every major continent.

"With the addition of those four data centers, it will cover our customers globally," Ethan Yu, general manager of Alibaba Cloud Global, told CNBC in a phone interview.


In each market, Alibaba Cloud has formed joint ventures (JV) and partnerships. In Dubai, Alibaba has formed a JV with Meraas Holdings called YVOLV. In Germany, Alibaba has partnered with Vodafone to open its first data center in Europe. Alibaba will use Vodafone's data center in order to sell its cloud services. In Japan, a JV with Softbankcalled SB Cloud Corporation was formed earlier this year.


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Nigel Treblin | Getty Images
The Sydney data center will come online "within a few weeks," Yu told CNBC. The executive said Alibaba was not disclosing the financial terms of the deals but there are revenue sharing agreements in place. The JV with SoftBank will be 60 percent owned by SoftBank with 40 percent owned by Alibaba, the companies said earlier this year.

‘Rapid expansion’
Alibaba's global expansion is a bid to challenge the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Google, who combined control over half of the worldwide cloud market, according to data from Synergy Research Group. Alibaba is much smaller than Amazon Web Services (AWS) which leads the market, but is growing very quickly.

In its latest fiscal quarter ended September 30, Alibaba reported revenue from its cloud computing division that increased 130 percent year-on-year to $224 million. This outpaced the growth seen by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon's cloud units.

Alibaba's cloud unit has 2.3 million customers of which 651,000 are paying customers. Yu said the company's next milestone is 1 million paying users but offered no timeframe on when this would be achieved. The cloud business is also still unprofitable with the focus still on scaling.

"We are not looking at profitability as the near term goal. For now, our goal is to keep expanding our market leadership and therefore we will continue to make investments and develop that for rapid expansion," Yu told CNBC.


Concerns over Trump presidency?
Alibaba Cloud – also known as Aliyun – has been helped by supportive government regulation in China, which has the development of cloud computing a priority. Domestic players like Alibaba have benefitted while foreign vendors have found it difficult to enter the market.

This is a differentiator for Alibaba Cloud and is attractive for international businesses trying to crack the Chinese market.

"We have a strong flavor of China and Asia. We are the true cloud that can provide a global infrastructure to our end users and are connected globally especially in China," Yu told CNBC.

Alibaba currently has two data center locations in the U.S. and Yu said the company has seen a "big number" of customers using cloud services to expand their U.S. footprint.

But technology companies are trying to figure out what a Donald Trump presidency means for their business. The president-elect has touted the idea of a 45 percent import tariff on Chinese goods, though it's unclear if this plan will go through.

Yu said it's too early to tell what effect Trump's policies will have.

"We will be in a much better position in a few months down the road. For me, a very positive relationship between China and the U.S. will be helpful for all business moving forward. From our perspective, we will focus on our business first," Yu said.
 
Alibaba tops Chinese enterprises on corporate social responsibility: report
By Jiang Jie (People's Daily Online) 15:32, December 14, 2016

Jack Ma’s Alibaba has been ranked in first place on a recent corporate social responsibility index measuring 110 well-known Chinese enterprises.

The annual index, jointly developed by the Corporate Legal Research Center at Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Political Science Institute of East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL), noted that the gap between corporate social responsibility for private companies and state-owned enterprises (SOE) is in fact narrowing, with the private sector making steady progress.

The report evaluated 89 SOEs and 21 private companies in total. In addition to Alibaba, private companies like telecom equipment manufacturer ZTE, Chinese home appliance giant Midea and internet giant Tencent also ranked in the top 10, occupying the 4th, 6th and 7th places respectively.

The report pointed out that the average ratings of private enterprises were higher than those of SOEs when it came to responsibilities both within the company and to society. Average responsiblity ratings were close on health development.

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“People tend to believe that private Chinese companies lag behind SOEs in corporate social responsibility, which is to some extent a correct impression... However, it should be noted that most of China’s private businesses are small in size, not yet able to focus as much on factors outside their own survival,” said Zhu Jian, an associate researcher with ECUPL, at a press conference on Dec. 13.

Meanwhile, larger private enterprises actually emphasize social responsibility.

“Their willingness and ability are as good as [that of] state-owned enterprises,” Zhu acknowledged.

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According to Zhu, the 110 companies surveyed cover 19 industries, mainly from the mining and banking industries. There was only one company representing the medical industry - Sinopharm Group, which ranked 51st. Companies in information and software service, oil and gas, mining and manufacturing generally had higher ratings. The banking industry was found to have the lowest average ratings.

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Gao Qiqi, dean of the Political Science Institute of ECUPL and also one of the project managers for the index, said that the project is the most objective and comprehensive index available; it aims to help China break away from excessive reliance on international indices.

The new index was calculated based on four indicators: self-responsibility, industry responsibility, community responsibility and national responsibility. The companies were evaluated on aspects ranging from creditors and labor rights to fair competition to environmental protection and philanthropy.
 
Alibaba’s Ma Meets With Trump to Talk About Creating Jobs
by Selina Wang
January 10, 2017, 5:21 AM GMT+11 January 10, 2017, 12:23 PM GMT+11

Trump: Great Meeting With Jack Ma About Jobs

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma met with Donald Trump on Monday to discuss how the online retailer could help create 1 million new U.S. jobs, keying in on one of the president-elect’s chief concerns amid fraught relations between China and the incoming administration.

The Chinese e-commerce giant said the positions would be generated through Alibaba adding 1 million small and medium-sized U.S. businesses to its platforms, estimating that each one will hire a new person as a result of the added commerce.

Several other top executives have met with Trump in his New York headquarters promising to create U.S. jobs. But Ma’s 40-minute sit-down comes after Trump has called for high tariffs on trade with China, accused the country of stealing jobs from Americans and incited political controversy by reaching out to Taiwan. Alibaba was also recently put backon the U.S. “Notorious Markets” list, with its Taobao website cited as a haven for fake merchandise, suggesting it hasn’t done enough to fight counterfeits. Alibaba said at the time its new designation could have been influenced by politics.

Still, Alibaba needs to cultivate a positive working relationship with Trump as it aims to implement its international expansion plans. Ma’s discussion fits into Alibaba’s long-stated goal of bringing foreign goods to Chinese consumers. Ma has also said he wants the company to derive half of its revenue from outside China, which would to offset any slowdowns at home.

Alibaba shares rose 0.9 percent to $94.72 at the close in New York. The stock gained 8 percent last year.
Alibaba has a significant part of its business tied to trade in the U.S., giving it a strong incentive to avoid a situation in which Trump puts his campaign rhetoric into practice. Higher tariffs would depress demand for the AliExpress site, where Chinese retailers sell to U.S. consumers. Any ensuing trade disputes could hurt sales on Alibaba’s Tmall platform, through which U.S. and international brands sell to Chinese consumers. Last year, 7,000 U.S. brands on Alibaba’s platforms made sales worth $15 billion to Chinese consumers, according to the company.


“Jack and I are going to do some great things together,” Trump said in the lobby of the Trump Tower in New York. After the meeting, Alibaba tweeted that it “wants to create U.S. jobs by helping U.S. small businesses and farmers sell to China’s 300 million-strong middle class.”

U.S. produce sold on Alibaba’s platforms include Pacific Northwest cherries, Washington State apples, and Alaskan seafood.

Trump’s meeting with Ma comes just a few weeks after he met with SoftBank Group Corp. Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son. In that meeting, Trump took credit for a previously announced investment by SoftBank and 50,000 jobs that fund would help create in the U.S.

Several other companies -- from IBM to Ford Motor Co. -- have also unveiled plans to create jobs in the country since Trump’s election, though some of the plans had been in the works before the election was decided.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...meets-with-trump-in-pledge-to-create-new-jobs
 
It's a win-win for both Donald Trump and Jack Ma.

For Donald Trump: it adds to the narrative that he is creating new jobs. As a politician, it will helps his approval ratings.

For Jack Ma: Great Public Relations, free advertisement and Alibaba will get to add a million new vendors to its site. This enhances the value of Alibaba and increases its market share.
 
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