Alibaba highlights environment, ‘hard tech’ as Singles’ Day sales lose steam
- Alibaba’s focus on green initiatives and sustainability during Singles’ Day comes amid China’s low carbon push and tightened regulatory environment
- The company said that its data centre in Hebei province uses renewable energy and this helped to reduce carbon emissions by more than 26,000 tonnes
Technologies like cloud computing and robotic vehicles contributed to reducing the environmental impact of the world’s biggest shopping festival, Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding said on Tuesday, even though sales growth for Singles’ Day was the lowest level on record.
Alibaba’s focus on green initiatives and sustainability during the annual online shopping event comes amid China’s low carbon push and tightened regulatory environment.
That approach comes at a time when Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, is also trying to prove its capabilities in so-called hard tech, such as semiconductors, that Beijing is encouraging China’s Big Tech companies to pursue as part of the country’s self sufficiency drive.
Alibaba Cloud, the country’s largest cloud service provider, reduced computing resources by 50 per cent for every 10,000 transactions compared to a year ago, while computing efficiency improved with a 30 per cent rise in “CPU resource utilisation”, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Every aspect of people’s lives is being digitised, but doing so with zero carbon emissions is a big concern,” Cheng Li, Alibaba’s chief technology officer, said in a video posted on Tuesday.
The traditionally extravagant event, with multibillion-dollar galas featuring appearances by celebrities, was much more low-key this year in line with the Chinese government’s focus on environmental sustainability and social equality.