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This week, Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing division of Alibaba Group, announced a partnership with German quality assurance firm TÜV Rheinland to verify emissions statistics from companies using the platform’s Energy Expert service.
Also, Paris’s Center Pompidou Museum, home of France’s Musée National d’Art Moderne, has opened a store on Alibaba Group’s e-commerce platform Tmall to offer lifestyle and home goods inspired by artworks in its collections.
And actors from Hong Kong broadcaster TVB tried their hand at livestreaming products to consumers in mainland China on the group’s B2C marketplace Taobao.
Alibaba Cloud partners with TÜV Rheinland to help companies achieve net zero goals
This week, German quality assurance provider TÜV Rheinland partnered with Alibaba Cloud’s sustainability solution Energy Expert to help companies verify and certify their carbon emissions and meet their net-zero goals.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that use Energy Expert to monitor their carbon emissions throughout the supply chain will have emissions figures certified by TÜV Rheinland, which also helps verify sellers on e-commerce marketplace Alibaba.com .
The partnership provides SMEs with a one-stop solution to receive a seal of approval for their carbon reduction efforts and makes it easier and cheaper for them to enter other markets where sustainability regulations apply.
“This will enable our customers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, to achieve their net-zero goals in a cost- and time-saving manner and through a sound sustainability strategy,” said Raymond Ma, General Manager of Europe at Alibaba Cloud.
According to Alibaba Cloud, its energy expert has helped more than 2,300 companies achieve energy savings of more than 2 million kilowatt hours a day.
Stars from Hong Kong’s TVB channel Wow on Taobao live stream
TVB, the operator of five Hong Kong TV channels, saw strong sales this week as it made its live streaming debut on Taobao.
Actress Sharon Chan co-hosted a show Tuesday with longtime screen partner Moses Chan. The couple rose to fame in 2007 in local TV drama, Heart of Greed.
The two stars held a six-hour live streaming session on March 7 starting at 6 p.m. selling seafood, cosmetics and other daily necessities. The session attracted 4.85 million views and grossed 23.5 million yuan ($3.37 million), according to Taobao.
TVB plans to host at least 48 live streaming sessions on Taobao this year and says it values its collaboration with the platform. Influencers, including China’s famous serial tech entrepreneur Luo Yonghao, joined the trend last year in hopes of making a bigger impact on the platform.
bon jour! The Center Pompidou opens its Chinese gift shop on Tmall
The Center Pompidou, one of the most visited museums in France, this week launched its first online gift shop in China on the group’s B2C platform Tmall.
The Center Pompidou has released design books, prints of its best-known artworks and other art-inspired gifts, including flying discs imprinted with Piet Mondrian’s 1942 painting New York City and reprints of Robert Delaunay’s The Eiffel Tower. artwork.
The Center Pompidou will work with Tmall on more exclusive collaborations.
These will cover the categories of home decor, fashion and accessories, glamping, kids and pets, according to Lu Xue, head of e-commerce and product research and development at the Center Pompidou.
Digital-first entrepreneurs are leading this International Women’s Day
Women in emerging markets are using the digital economy to become entrepreneurs, according to recent graduates of a training program created by Alibaba.
Globally, women are 12% less likely to own a mobile phone and 6% less have access to the internet than men, according to UN reports. The absolute gender gap in access to digital tools has widened by 20 million in the last two years.
“It’s about opportunities. At some point in your life, there may not be many options left, especially for women in Pakistan,” Sunbul Sameen, a Karachi-based entrepreneur who took part in Alibaba Netpreneur training last year, told Alizila.
The Alibaba Netpreneur training program, a series of courses designed to support digital entrepreneurship, is working to change that by providing upskilling training for entrepreneurs, women and youth in over 60 markets.
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Alibaba’s Idle Fish Improves Authentication Service to Build Trust in Second-Hand Retailers
Alibaba’s second-hand digital marketplace Idle Fish last week updated its authentication feature to help consumers verify the goods they trade on the platform.
The upgrade allows consumers to double the number of brands they can authenticate on the platform. Consumers can now check over 18 million goods on the platform and get a detailed report within eight hours.
“We want sellers and buyers to have real confidence when trading at Idle Fish,” said Li Yong, general manager of Idle Fish’s Dealer and Service Center.
According to iiMedia Research, over 180 million people used pre-owned commerce platforms in 2020, reaching a market size of RMB 374.5 billion (US$54 billion).
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Chinese tourists travel to Antarctica after voyage restarts
Alibaba’s online travel platform Flggy is bringing back its Antarctic itinerary to Chinese tourists this week after travel reopened in January.
The cruise line to Antarctica was one of the most popular products on Flggy before the pandemic, and around 6,000 Chinese tourists had joined Norwegian coastal cruise line Hurtigruten’s cruise line to the South Pole from 2017 to 2020.
Chinese consumers’ searches for the Antarctic trip on the platform had increased by 300% in February compared to the same period last year.
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Research Finds: Companies in Asia will migrate to the cloud in 2023
Businesses in Asia will accelerate their migration to the cloud this year, according to a survey by Alibaba Cloud and global research firm Nielsen IQ on Tuesday.
More than 80% of cloud service users in Asia are planning a full cloud migration in two years, with 84% planning to increase their investment in cloud technology to support business growth, the survey found.
“Cloud adoption has become a requirement for business success, and our customers are adopting a diverse cloud strategy to drive business growth in the digital age,” said Selina Yuan, President of International Business at Alibaba Cloud.
The survey, commissioned by Alibaba’s cloud computing arm, was based on responses from 1,000 decision makers on corporate cloud strategies in eight Asian markets.
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