Promote environmental initiatives at Asian Games

The mascot of the Asian Games is on display.Image source: Alibaba Group

This week, Alibaba Group said it would use sustainable technology to support the Asian Games in Hangzhou later this year.

In other news, financial services firm Ant Group agreed this week to support the National Basketball Association in helping Chinese fans watch NBA content.

Chinese consumers are also flocking to the tropical paradise Maldives, according to travel platform Fliggy, which reported a surge in bookings after the two countries reached a visa-free agreement.

Alibaba uses green tech to support Hangzhou Asian Games

Alibaba’s e-commerce expertise and cloud infrastructure will power the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and help the event launch green initiatives.

By leveraging its digital prowess, the Hangzhou-based platform company will encourage the 1 billion consumers and tens of millions of businesses on its platform to participate in what has been dubbed the “greenest” Asian Games.

The partnership is part of a push by Alibaba Cloud, the group’s cloud computing arm, to support major events on the cloud, including the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Alibaba has also launched other innovative products for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, including a special version of Alibaba’s workplace messaging platform Dingding – the Sports Edition Dingding Premium Edition.

Ant Group partners with NBA to attract Chinese fans

Ant Group said this week that it has reached a strategic partnership with the Chinese NBA to create original content and provide customized consumption experiences for Chinese fans.

Under the partnership, basketball fans in China will be able to access NBA video content on Ant Financial’s payment platform, Alipay. The duo will also develop original video content, create joint memberships and launch digital collectibles to engage with Chinese fans.

Ni Xingjun, Chief Technology Officer of Ant Financial, said: “Bringing the NBA’s premium content and participating content creators to our platform is an important step for Alipay to embrace the content ecosystem as an open platform.”

The partnership follows NBA China’s earlier initiatives to connect with the Chinese fan community. Last week, the organization launched the NBA Channel on the payment platform, offering user-generated content from the NBA’s Chinese influence network and Alipay content creators.

Fliggy promotes Maldives tourism after visa relaxation for Chinese tourists

On Friday, Alibaba’s travel services platform Fliggy launched a promotion targeting Chinese tourists to the Maldives after the two countries signed a visa-free agreement.

Fliggy this week tripled the number of travel products available on its site, including all-inclusive packages covering accommodation and round-trip airfare.

Searches for Maldives travel on Fliggy jumped 1,000% within two hours of the waiver agreement taking effect. The Maldives is a chain of 26 atolls in the Indian Ocean. In the first two weeks of February, bookings by platform users in the country were up 1,500% year-on-year.

According to the agreement, Chinese passport holders can travel to the Maldives without a visa for 30 days for short-term purposes such as tourism, business, family visits, and transit.

Alibaba beats Wall Street profit forecasts; optimistic for year ahead

Alibaba’s third-quarter profit topped Wall Street expectations, honing its business against a challenging backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and stiff competition.

The platform company’s adjusted EBITA, a non-GAAP measure, rose 16% year-on-year to 52.05 billion yuan ($7.55 billion) in the quarter ended Dec. 31, beating estimates compiled by Thomson. About RMB 47 billion forecast.

“Over the past quarter, we continued to improve operational efficiency and cost optimization, resulting in strong profit growth,” said Toby Xu, Alibaba’s chief financial officer.

Industry analysts say the platform company has consistently delivered higher-than-expected quarterly profit forecasts for the past year, largely by reining in costs.

Read the full story here

AliViews: Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang on Q3 earnings

“Last quarter, our business and operations experienced significant challenges due to the rapidly changing COVID situation in December,” Alibaba CEO Yong Zhang said on an earnings call this week.

“Despite these challenges, we achieved double-digit year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITA and free cash flow through effective business management, cost optimization and operational efficiencies.”

Read his full review here