Alibaba commits US$1 billion on global cloud services partner ecosystem to expand overseas amid China’s faltering economy

Alibaba Cloud, which runs the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group Holding, has committed a US$1 billion investment to upgrade its global partner ecosystem, as China’s faltering economy prompts the company to ratchet up its international expansion.

That investment, according to Alibaba, will consist of both financial and non-financial incentives, such as funding, rebates and go-to-market initiatives, to support partners’ technology innovation and market expansion during the company’s three financial years, which started from April. Hangzhou-based Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

“Partners have always been a key focus for Alibaba Cloud, and we are committed to providing them with strong support … both technologically and commercially,” Selina Yuan, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International president, said in her keynote speech on Thursday to announce the investment at the 2022 Alibaba Cloud Summit held in Phuket, Thailand.

The revamped strategy bodes well for Alibaba Cloud, as it competes against large providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud overseas. Alibaba Cloud was the world’s third-largest infrastructure-as-a-service provider by revenue in 2021 and 2020, behind AWS and Microsoft Azure, according to data from tech research firm Gartner.

Cloud computing services enable companies to buy, sell, lease or distribute a range of software and other digital resources as an on-demand service over the internet, just like electricity from a power grid. These resources are managed inside data centres.