DEBATE: Can we expect the Chinese celebration of Singles’ Day to make it over to Britain? November 13, 2018 Can we expect the Chinese celebration of Singles’ Day to make it over to Britain? Abbie Llewelyn, a writer and commentator, says YES. If you think that Valentine’s Day is a commercialised hallmark holiday, just wait until UK companies catch onto Singles’ Day. Originating at Chinese universities in the 90s, Alibaba made it what it [...]
Alibaba’s record-breaking Singles Day sales hit $10bn in first hour November 11, 2018 Online retail giant Alibaba today smashed records for the largest shopping day on the planet, making sales of over $1bn (£770.5m) in just 85 seconds. The sales came during Singles Day, the world’s largest online retail festival. Alibaba’s total sales hit $10bn after one hour and had reached over $24bn after 16 hours. The festival's sales eclipse the estimated [...]
Singles’ Day is set to boom and European brands need to prepare November 6, 2018 When thinking about the significant e-commerce dates of the year, we would normally consider the obvious contenders like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but a new event is beginning to make headlines and grow in popularity in the west: Singles' Day. This event, held on 11 November and originating in China in the 1990s, is starting [...]
Hammond’s digital services tax puts UK competitiveness at risk October 31, 2018 The government has long been scratching its head for ways to address the current tax treatment of global tech platforms. Our tax code – all 10m words of it – has been struggling to keep up and adapt to a new economy that is being driven by technology, innovation, and digitalisation. On Monday, Philip Hammond [...]
Tech giant Alibaba opens two cloud data centres in the UK October 22, 2018 E-commerce giant Alibaba's cloud arm has opened two data centres in London, signalling the firm's first official expansion to British shores. The centres will power Alibaba's cloud services in the UK, allowing it to effectively disseminate its services to British businesses as it seeks to compete with rivals Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft. The [...]
How would you like to pay for that, madam? October 17, 2018 | City Talk The global payments industry is dramatically improving due to technology. Mobile has changed everything. Payments are getting faster and smarter. Competition is intense. And payments are revolutionsing markets in the developing world even faster than in the developed world. In just the next seven years, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that widespread adoption and use [...]
Alibaba billionaire Jack Ma named China’s richest man October 10, 2018 Alibaba founder Jack Ma has been named as the richest man in China for the second time in recent years after his wealth rose more than a third to $39bn (£29.6bn). Ma last topped the Hurun rich list in 2014 but has regained his position at the top after a new round of investment in [...]
US-China trade war: Alibaba founder Jack Ma breaks 1m US jobs pledge September 20, 2018 Alibaba boss Jack Ma no longer believes his retail giant can create 1m US jobs, blaming America’s ongoing trade war with China. "The promise was made on the premise of friendly US-China partnership and rational trade relations," Ma said. "That premise no longer exists today, so our promise cannot be fulfilled,” he told Chinese news [...]
Alibaba’s cloud computing arm Aliyun launches “China’s first” artificial intelligence service August 25, 2015 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s cloud computing arm is breaking into the artificial intelligence market, launching what the company is proclaiming to be “China’s first AI platform”, which will give developers the capacity to analyse large amounts of data. Cloud computing division Aliyun is Alibaba’s fastest-growing division, and although the company still gets most of its [...]
Alibaba share price plummets on disappointing revenue figures August 12, 2015 Alibaba's share price is set for a continued slump after its revenue and sales growth came in weaker than expected in the first quarter. The figures The Chinese e-commerce company's stock opened over seven per cent down on the New York Stock Exchange this morning after it reported a 28 per cent increase in revenue [...]