Alibaba Open-Sources Its AI Video Model Wan2.1 Series

Alibaba is making waves in the AI world by launching an open-source version of its video and image-generating AI model, Wan 2.1. This move is set to intensify competition in China's AI market, especially following DeepSeek's recent launch of its own open-source models.

Alibaba Cloud announced the open source release of four models in its Wan2.1 series of large video generation models. As an open source, it will be open to global academia, researchers, and commercial organizations for use, further promoting innovation and inclusiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Alibaba's AI models, particularly the Qwen 2.5-Max and Wan 2.1, are making significant strides in the AI landscape. Alibaba Cloud is one of the first global technology companies to open source its own large-scale AI models, and as early as August 2023, it launched its first open source model Qwen (Qwen-7B). 

The open-source community is unstoppable! 🌟 To celebrate #OpenSourceWeek, we’re excited to open-source Wan2.1—the #1 Hugging Face foundation video model and the only open-source video generation model in the VBench top 5. Let’s keep on supporting open-source together!🤝

Check… https://t.co/PrkFv2iWDT

— Alibaba Group (@AlibabaGroup) February 26, 2025

Wan 2.1 is designed to generate highly realistic visuals and has already secured a top ranking on VBench, a leaderboard for video generative models. Alibaba has released Wan 2.1, each capable of generating images and videos from text and image input. These models are available globally on Alibaba Cloud's ModelScope and HuggingFace platforms.

In addition to Wan 2.1, Alibaba has also introduced a preview version of its reasoning model, QwQ-Max, which it plans to make open source upon the full release. This strategic move aligns with Alibaba's broader AI ambitions, as the company has announced plans to invest at least $52 billion over the next three years to bolster its cloud computing and AI infrastructure.

The Qwen 2.5-Max model is part of Alibaba's open-source Qwen series and is designed to process long, complex queries and engage in nuanced conversations. It has been benchmarked against models like OpenAI's GPT-4, DeepSeek-V3, and Meta's Llama-3.1-405B, and has shown superior performance in several areas.

This open-source initiative is expected to foster innovation, lower barriers to entry, and position Alibaba as a formidable player in the AI space.

Alibaba in its announcement press release said — Training video-based models requires huge computing resources and a large amount of high-quality training data. Open source helps lower the barrier to entry for more companies to use AI, enabling them to create high-quality visualization content that meets their needs in a cost-effective manner.

Text prompt: A man is performing professional diving moves on a diving platform. In the panoramic shot, he is wearing red swimming trunks and his body is upside down, with his arms extended and his legs together. The camera moves down and he jumps into the water, splashing. In the background is a blue swimming pool.)

Among them, the T2V-14B model is more suitable for generating high-quality visual effects with rich motion dynamics, while the T2V-1.3B model strikes a balance between generation quality and computing power, making it an ideal choice for developers for secondary development and academic research. For example, the T2V-1.3B model allows users to generate a 5-second, 480p resolution video in about 4 minutes using only an ordinary laptop.

Apple and Alibaba Collaborate for AI Features for China's iPhone Users

Apple has partnered with Alibaba to develop AI features specifically for iPhone users in China. This collaboration aims to address Apple's declining market share in China, where competitors like Huawei have already integrated AI tools into their devices.

The partnership is significant because it allows Apple to navigate China's strict regulatory landscape by leveraging Alibaba's extensive experience in AI and its vast user data from platforms like Taobao and Tmall. The jointly developed AI features are currently awaiting regulatory approval, and if approved, they could be integrated into future iOS updates.

This move is seen as a potential game-changer for Apple's position in the Chinese market, where iPhone sales have been struggling since 2024. It could also help Apple regain lost ground by offering more personalized and intuitive AI-powered features for Chinese users.

The partnership between Apple and Alibaba could lead to several AI features for iPhone users in China. Some potential features include Enhanced Siri Responses where in Siri could provide more accurate and context-aware responses by leveraging Alibaba's AI models and vast user data.

With this partnership, Apple Intelligence, which has been unavailable in China, could be reintroduced with features tailored specifically for Chinese users. Notably, Apple has set an internal target to roll out Apple Intelligence in simplified Chinese by April for users outside China. However, bringing the service to mainland China still requires regulatory approval.

Besides, with this partnership iPhone users in China might receive personalized content recommendations based on their browsing and purchasing habits from platforms like Taobao and Tmall.

This collaboration aims to address Apple's declining market share in China by integrating localized AI services that comply with the country's strict regulatory landscape. Apple has been facing declining market share in China, partly due to the lack of AI features in its devices. Competitors like Huawei have already integrated AI tools into their smartphones, putting Apple at a disadvantage.

Before partnering with Alibaba, Apple explored collaborations with other Chinese tech giants like Baidu, Tencent, and ByteDance. However, these partnerships did not meet Apple's standards due to various reasons, including privacy concerns and technical challenges.

Alibaba was chosen as the ideal partner due to its extensive experience in AI and its vast user data from platforms like Taobao and Tmall – two of the largest e-commerce platforms in China, both owned by Alibaba Group.

The jointly developed AI features are currently awaiting regulatory approval, but if approved, they could significantly enhance user experiences with smarter Siri responses, improved search capabilities, and more personalized services.

These features aim to provide a more personalized and intuitive user experience, helping Apple regain its competitive edge in the Chinese market.

After 3 Yrs of Disappearance, Jack Ma Returns with an Agritech and Fishery Startup

After spending 3 years away from public view and remain biz-life in low-profile, Alibaba founder and China's entrepreneurs' idol Jack Ma is back in the news with the Chinese daily reports saying that he's behind a newly-established fishery and agriculture start-up in China.

The startup called "1.8 Meters Marine Technology (Zhejiang)" is based in China's Hangzhou city and has a registered capital of 110 million yuan (approx. USD 15 million or Rs 127 crore), said the report citing corporate registry data provider Tianyancha.

While the agritech startup's controlling shareholder is Hong Kong-based 1.8 Meters Technology Holding Ltd, which holds 80% stake. 10 % of the shares is held by one of Jack Ma's investment holdings firms, Hangzhou Dajingtou No. 22 Arts and Culture Co., has a 10% equity stake in the Startup. Besides, Simon Hu, the former chief executive of Alibaba's Ant Group, also owns a 5.5% stake in the start-up, according to the Tianyancha data.

Hangzhou Dajingtou No. 22 Arts and Culture is one of the ventures created by Jack Ma in 2019 for investment deals in China.

The new venture, which also covers processing, wholesale and retail sales of agriculture products as well as development of offshore wind power systems, fits Ma’s keen interest in the agriculture and food sector following his retirement from Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, a Chinese daily which reported this news.

Once the richest in China (2019), Jack Ma is now the fourth-wealthiest person in China with a net worth of $34.5 billion, (after Zhong Shanshan, Zhang Yiming and Ma Huateng), as well as the 39th wealthiest person in the world, as of June 2023 ranking by Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

After criticising Chinese financial regulators and banks in an October 2020 speech, Jack Ma faced a tight scrutiny of the ventures he founded and then eventually he was forced to give up control of his fintech giant Ant Financial in January 2020.

Alibaba Cloud Unveils Its First International Product Innovation Center and Partner Management Center

Business Wire India
 

Leading cloud service provider manifests its commitment to global customers, starting from its international headquarters in Singapore

The cloud leader also attains the highest tier of cybersecurity certification while facilitating local customers’ digital transformation in retail, logistics and gaming

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA; HKEX: 9988), today unveiled at the Alibaba Cloud Singapore Summit 2023 its first international product innovation center and partner management center, to further enhance customer services and better facilitate customers’ digitalization journey.

The new Product Innovation Center will help facilitate future roadmaps for developing more market-specific solutions, and will oversee the management of product upgrades based on ongoing global customer demands. To better serve local customers’ needs, the Partner Management Center will be launched to delve into local collaborations to deepen the sharing of leading technologies and domain expertise amongst partners.

These new initiatives will not only create more job opportunities for local talents in Singapore but will also enhance more local collaborations through the creation of a new Innovation Accelerator Program to support businesses to expand as the global digital economy continues to grow.

The Innovation Accelerator Program aims to bring together industry leaders and experts to help develop more innovative and resilient businesses in Singapore through sharing of practical skills and ideas, and providing ease of access to the latest cloud technologies. Each eligible company under the program will also receive complimentary training and technical support from Alibaba Cloud and industry experts.

By supporting businesses with their digital transformation and innovation journey through upskilling, retraining, and technical upgrading, the program also provides them with an opportunity to plug into the dynamic global ecosystem of Alibaba Cloud, which is designed to further empower businesses to explore and realize their growth ambitions not only locally but also internationally.

“Today we are in a very early stage of digitalization,” said Dr. Wang Jian, Member of Chinese Engineering Academy and founder of Alibaba Cloud. “In the next five to ten years, the economy is going to be driven and measured by computing consumption. Digital economy is the economy of computing, and cloud computing will play the same role in the era of digitalization as electricity played in the era of electrification. The cloud is becoming a methodology not just for cloud computing, but a methodology for most people doing their work.”

In a bid to complement sustainable business strategies, Alibaba Cloud will also be working with partners to help 10,000 global companies to accelerate their sustainability journey over the next three years. Businesses in Singapore will be offered a pilot program of Energy Expert to help reduce their carbon footprints. A proprietary software-as-a-service sustainability platform launched by Alibaba Cloud in June last year, Energy Expert helps measure, analyze, and manage the carbon emissions of business activities and products while providing actionable insights and energy-saving recommendations to companies in helping them achieve their carbon emission goals.

“With the setup of our first International Product Innovation Center and Partner Management Center in Singapore, our global headquarters for Alibaba Cloud, we are committed to continuously supporting global businesses in their digital transformation journey. The new initiatives and the strengthening of our talented workforce further illustrate our support for global customers with ambitions to expand and upgrade their innovation capabilities, while delivering on their sustainability goals,” said Selina Yuan, Vice President of Alibaba Group and President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International Business Unit.

Attaining the highest tier of CSA cybersecurity certification

A critical part of Alibaba Cloud’s continuous efforts is to bring better services and offerings to businesses and these include enhanced cybersecurity and protection for customers. Alibaba Cloud has recently attained the Cyber Trust (Advocate) mark certification. The Cyber Trust mark, developed by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), is targeted at larger or more digitalized organizations, and helps organizations to communicate their investment in cybersecurity as a competitive edge and to build trust with their customers.

The Cyber Trust (Advocate) mark is the highest tier of the certification. It affirms Alibaba Cloud’s dedication to offer trusted services for businesses to manage and protect their cloud infrastructure.

Supporting Customers’ Growth with Technology for Innovation

Gadget MIX is a Singapore-based retailer with more than 20 outlets across the country and a robust e-commerce presence that focuses on high-tech digital products. Alibaba Cloud has helped Gadget MIX digitally transform its retail strategy through providing innovative cloud solutions. Partnering with Alibaba Cloud has allowed Gadget MIX to improve internal communications, streamline business operations, and seamlessly migrate to the cloud to speed up its business transformation.

“The solutions provided by Alibaba Cloud have helped to lower our total cost of ownership and streamline business operations, thus speeding up our business transformation efforts. In particular, the deployment of DingTalk has helped us to improve workflow management and team collaborations as well as our business and internal communications. Through our digital transformation efforts together with Alibaba Cloud, we have succeeded in creating more value for our retail customers and look forward to future collaborations around digital transformation,” said Ray Yue, CEO of Gadget MIX.

Leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s game accelerator solution and security products like Game Shield and Anti-DDos, Project Twelve (P12), a web3 gaming platform headquartered in Singapore, is now able to focus on scalable game deployment while providing a secure environment for their users by lowering the risks of cyberattacks. P12 also utilizes Alibaba Cloud’s cloud native database, PolarDB, to reduce maintenance time and improve uptime reliability, thus creating a smooth gamer experience.

“With added assurance for a secure gaming experience within P12 platform, we can focus our efforts on elevating the platform with quality games and sustainable economy in the fast-moving and dynamic web3 gaming industry. Alibaba Cloud’s solutions have helped us to provide our users with smoother gaming experiences and scale accordingly to peak demands with high availability and low latency,” said Boyang, founder of Project Twelve.

With Singapore as a vibrant logistics hub and it being a key pillar of the Singapore economy, Alibaba Cloud has also been working with many logistics players to deepen their digital transformation efforts. This includes JUSTI Pte. Ltd. (JUSTI), a homegrown investment holding company whose main investment portfolios includes a last mile delivery operation. Alibaba Cloud’s solutions have enabled them to digitalize and streamline its logistic networks.

“Alibaba Cloud’s AI-driven EasyDispatch solution with an embedded vehicle routing problem (VRP) capability improves our field dispatch capabilities and efficiency in real time. By utilizing Alibaba Cloud’s technologies, we can have better visibility and control over each step of our delivery chains, such as parcel status tracking, real-time AI route designing and task scheduling. They have greatly reduced our manpower cost and increase customers’ satisfaction,” said Li ChaoMing, Managing Director of JUSTI.

About Alibaba Cloud

Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, management and application services, big data analytics, a machine learning platform and IoT services. Alibaba maintained its position as the third leading public cloud IaaS service provider globally since 2018, according to IDC. Alibaba is the world’s third leading and Asia Pacific’s leading IaaS provider by revenue in U.S. dollars since 2018, according to Gartner.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230108005098/en/

Alibaba Group Pursues Primary Listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

Business Wire India

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (“Alibaba” or the “Company”) (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988) today announces that its board of directors (“Board”) has authorized the Company’s management to apply for a primary listing on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange. After completion of the primary listing process, which is expected to occur prior to the end of 2022, Alibaba will become a dual-primary listed company on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the form of ordinary shares.

Alibaba currently maintains a secondary listing on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange and will apply for a primary listing status pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The Company's ADSs listed in the United States and the shares listed in Hong Kong are fungible, and investors can continue to choose to hold their shares in the form of ADSs traded on the New York Stock Exchange or ordinary shares traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

“We have received approval from the Board to apply to add Hong Kong as another primary listing venue, in the hopes of fostering a wider and more diversified investor base to share in Alibaba’s growth and future, especially from China and other markets in Asia,” said Alibaba Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang. “Hong Kong and New York are both major global financial centers, with shared characteristics of openness and diversity. Hong Kong is also the launch pad for Alibaba’s globalization strategy, and we are fully confident in China’s economy and future.”

Since the Company’s secondary listing in Hong Kong in November 2019, there has been a significant increase in its public float and transaction volume on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In the first six months ended June 30, 2022, Alibaba’s average daily trading volume in Hong Kong was approximately US$0.7 billion, compared to average daily trading volume of approximately US$3.2 billion in the United States. Given the substantial presence of its business operations in Greater China, the Company expects that a dual-primary listing status would allow it to broaden its investor base and facilitate incremental liquidity, in particular expand access to China- and other Asia-based investors.

Safe Harbor StatementsThis press release may contain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “expected,” “will” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements, including statements related to the expected timing and completion of the primary listing process, are not guarantees of future results, and involve risks and uncertainties, including, among other things, satisfaction of the relevant requirements of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and market conditions. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein, except as required under applicable law.


This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute, or form part of, any invitation or offer to acquire, purchase or subscribe for any of our securities. Shareholders and potential investors should exercise caution when dealing in our securities.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that it will be a good company that lasts for 102 years.



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Alibaba Group Announces CFO Succession

Business Wire India

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988, “Alibaba” or “Alibaba Group”) today announced that Toby Xu, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, will succeed Maggie Wu as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, effective April 1, 2022. Maggie will continue as a partner in the Alibaba Partnership and serve as an executive director on the Alibaba board.

“Maggie has made exceptional contributions that are instrumental to Alibaba’s achievements to date. Since joining Alibaba almost fifteen years ago, Maggie has helped lead three successful company public listings as CFO: Alibaba.com on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007, and Alibaba Group Holding on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019. She has built and nurtured a finance team with professional capabilities and accomplishments second to none, and has served as our bedrock in pursuing Alibaba’s strategies and business development. Maggie is forever calm and unflappable, regardless of ups and downs in the global capital markets and macro environment. She is humble and resilient, and has been my irreplaceable and closest partner over the years,” said Daniel Zhang, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group. “Going forward, Maggie will leverage her deep experience to support Alibaba in new ways. We will continue to benefit from her guidance and insights in her continued role as an Alibaba board director.”

 

“We are focused on the long-term, and succession within our management team on every occasion is always in the service of ensuring Alibaba will be stronger and better positioned for the future,” said Zhang. “Toby joined Alibaba from PwC three years ago and was appointed Deputy Group CFO in July 2019. He swiftly demonstrated his solid capabilities and leadership in response to our continually evolving businesses. He took on increasing responsibilities that grew to include our strategic investments, in addition to financial management and operations. We are certain that Toby is the right person to serve as our new Group CFO and, together with the core management team, will help lead our team towards our next success.”

 

“The announcement of Alibaba’s CFO transition today is the culmination of extensive preparation over many years and a part of Alibaba’s leadership succession planning. The markets will always have ups and downs, but Alibaba has ambitious long-term goals. We are in a relay race and we must have new generations of talent to take the company forward. I trust Toby even more than I trusted myself when I first took up the CFO position years ago. I am confident that Toby – through his professional capabilities and leadership skills, and together with Daniel and the core management team – will successfully lead our team into the future,” said Maggie Wu, Chief Financial Officer of Alibaba Group.

 

Toby joined Alibaba in July 2018 and was appointed Deputy Chief Financial Officer in July 2019. Before joining Alibaba Group, Toby was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers for 11 years, where he joined in 1996. He serves as a director of Sun Art Retail Group, Lianhua Supermarket Holdings and Red Star Macalline Group. Toby graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, with a bachelor’s degree in Physics in 1996. He is a member of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

 

About Alibaba Group

 

Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that it will be a good company that lasts for 102 years.

 

 

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211205005036/en/

Total (China) Investment Partners With Alibaba to Drive Its Digital Transformation

Total (China) Investment (the Company) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in order to pursue strategic collaboration with Alibaba Group (“Alibaba”) (NYSE: BABA; SEHK: 9988) and leverage their respective resources to drive the digital transformation of the Company’s operations in China.

Under the MoU, the two companies will develop in-depth collaboration based on the Alibaba Business Operation System (ABOS). Total (China) Investment will utilize Alibaba’s leading digital capabilities and technology across e-commerce, online payments, local services, supply chain, big data, and organizational management. The partnership will provide digital infrastructure and support for TOTAL’s service stations, lubricants and special fluids businesses in China, helping the company to enhance the accessibility and flexibility of its product offerings and services, accelerate its branded retail and outlet footprint and drive sustainable growth opportunities.

Total has been present in China for almost 40 years. This collaboration signifies that Total has become the first international energy company to leverage Alibaba ABOS, setting a digital transformation benchmark in the energy industry.

“Digital technology is a critical driver for achieving our excellence objectives across all of Total’s business segments. Total Group’s ambition is to generate as much as $1.5 billion in value per year for the company by 2025 through digital transformation initiatives,” said Ian Lepetit, President of Total (China) Investment. “China has a world-leading environment for digital innovation and a fertile ground for making it a reality. We hope the partnership will not only improve our business in this country but also create a best practice that we can roll out to Total Group’s overseas business, delivering better products, services and better customer experiences to more than 8 million customers everyday worldwide.”

“As one of the foremost players in the global energy industry, Total is renowned for an excellent lineup of products and services,” said Jet Jing, Vice President of Alibaba Group. “It is a privilege to work together and leverage the Alibaba Business Operating System to accelerate Total’s digital transformation, particularly in the areas of product innovations, customer acquisition, order fulfilment and organizational development. We believe the ABOS will support Total to establish a data-technology-driven and customer-centric operating system. Thriving on Alibaba’s integrated platforms and customer touch points, the ABOS will also facilitate Total to serve more customers, serve each customer to the fullest and provide better customer experience at a lower cost and in a more efficient manner.”

The partnership will cover Total (China) Investment’s major business activities (including service stations, lubricants business and car care business) and cooperate with more than 10 business units in the Alibaba Digital Economy. Total will have a cross-platform consumer-facing storefront, which will be launched to the market soon. Customers will be able to enjoy a seamless online-to-offline experience for TOTAL’s products and services on various popular apps, such as Taobao, Tmall, Alipay, Eleme and Amap, at anytime and anywhere.

Total has long been pursuing digital transformation. As part of an effort to efficiently implement its digital strategy, Total has adjusted its enterprise organizational structure, establishing the new role of Chief Digital Officer and appointing digital officers to its business segments.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba and that it will be a good company that lasts for 102 years.

About Total in China

Total has been present in China for almost 40 years. The Group was the first international energy company to enter China’s offshore oil and gas exploration and refining business.

With a team of more than 4,000 employees the company is actively present across the entire value chain of China’s energy industry, including Exploration & Production, Gas, Renewables & Power, Refining & Chemicals, and Marketing & Services activities. Total is constantly developing new business opportunities with Chinese partners both in China and globally.

About Total

Total is a broad energy Group, which produces and markets fuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to better energy that is safer, more affordable, cleaner and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major.

Jack Ma Foundation, Alibaba Donate Medical Supplies, COVID-19 Test Kits to India, Other Nations

Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation on Sunday announced donation of essential medical supplies, including face masks and COVID-19 test kits, to India and six other nations to help combat the spread of coronavirus.

"Collectively, these seven countries will receive a total of 1.7 million face masks, 1,65,000 test kits as well as protective clothing and medical equipment such as ventilators and forehead thermometers," the two foundations said in a statement.

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is the co-founder of multinational technology behemoth Alibaba Group.

Besides India, the medical supplies will be donated to Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The first batch of medical supplies for India arrived in Delhi last night and were received by the Indian Red Cross Society.

Similar to the arrangement with the Italian Red Cross Society in Italy, the Indian charity will facilitate the distribution of these supplies in the country, the statement said, adding that the remainder of the donation is expected to reach the country in the coming days.

With this, the two foundations have now donated essential medical supplies to 23 Asian countries totalling 7.4 million masks, 4,85,000 test kits, 1,00,000 sets of protective clothing along with other medical equipment.

Indian Red Cross Society Deputy Secretary Neel Kamal Singh took receipt of the deliveries from Vivek Sehgal, Manager, Alibaba Cloud India, acting on behalf of Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation in the presence of Ma Jia, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of China in India.

"We are one with the global community in the intense battle to protect all families against COVID-19. We are committed to doing everything we can to make a difference, most importantly by sourcing these supplies and overcoming logistical challenges to get the medical supplies to where they are needed as fast as we can," the statement said.

The move is among a slew of aid initiatives from the two foundations to support the areas of the world affected by the COVID-19 crisis, sourcing and delivering various types of medical supplies to countries across Asia, North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa, the statement said, adding that more initiatives and donations may be announced in the coming days and weeks.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a complete lockdown of the entire country for 21 days in an unprecedented move to halt the spread of the pandemic shortly after which the Centre said all road, rail and air services will remain suspended during this period.

The pandemic has claimed 25 lives in the country and number of COVID-19 cases have touched 979 in India. PTI MBI

Alibaba's UCWeb to Promote E-Commerce Firms Instead of Competing

Alibaba Group firm UCWeb on Friday said it will promote and support online shopping platforms in India rather than compete with them as it plans to launch e-commerce business this fiscal.

"Rather than competing with other e-commerce players, the new initiative would adopt a content platform model for promoting and supporting e-commerce players in India," UCWeb said in a statement.

UCWeb Global Business Vice President Huaiyuan Yang told PTI that the company's plan to foray into e-commerce space will not have any adverse impact on Paytm, in which Alibaba owns 30.15 per cent stake.

"Leveraging our extensive user communities in India, the new service is in line with our strategy to enrich the experience for users and clients alike," UCWeb said.

Alibaba Group owns 3 per cent stake in Snapdeal.

"We have Alibaba's e-commerce gene in us. We are actually trying to start innovative business model related to e-commerce," Yang had said on the sidelines of Alibaba Philanthropy forum.

UCweb, fully owned subsidiary of e-commerce giant Aliababa group, has been operating UC Browser in India since 2009. It claims to have registered 1.1 billion user downloads worldwide (excluding China), with half of its global installs from India. It also claims to have 130 million monthly active users in the country.

Besides, e-commerce solution, Yang said that the company will continue to focus on content on its platform, specially short videos.

UCWeb also have plans to start the sale of movie tickets online. PTI

Defying Slowing Economy Alibaba's Revenue Rose 42% YoY to $16.7 Billion in Q1-2019

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said Thursday that first quarter revenue beat analyst estimates, defying a slowing economy and a trade war with the United States.

Revenue for the April-June period rose 42 per cent year-on-year to 114.9 billion yuan (USD 16.7 billion), a company statement said, outpacing an average analyst estimate of 111.6 billion yuan compiled by Bloomberg News.

Joe Tsai, Alibaba's Executive Vice-Chairman, attributed the results to China's demographic trends and continued urbanisation, pointing to the growing urban middle class willing to shell out for brands on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms.

Net profit for the quarter was 21.2 billion (USD 3.1 billion), more than double from the same period a year earlier.

Revenue in the Hangzhou-based company's core e-commerce segment, which accounts for the vast majority of its business, jumped 44 per cent, while the smaller but fast-growing cloud computing unit surged 66 per cent.

"Alibaba had a great quarter, expanding our user base to 674 million annual active consumers, demonstrating our superior user experience," said Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba. "We will continue to invest in technology and bring digital transformation to millions of businesses globally."

Alibaba has been pouring money into what it calls "new retail", which optimises in-store sales and service using data culled online. It has also been fighting to grow its business abroad, primarly in Southeast Asia where it runs the Lazada e-commerce platform.

Orders on Lazada grew over 100 per cent on-year for the third consecutive quarter, the company said.

Alibaba's large entertainment division including the Netflix-like Youku grew 6 per cent, as China's movie industry faces a tough regulatory environment with authorities cancelling films they deem unpatriotic and continually changing censorship guidelines.

Zhang told investors the movie streaming platform is investing in original content with average daily subscribers up 40 per cent year-on-year.

Alibaba dominates China's rapidly expanding consumer culture and its corporate results are typically closely watched for any signs that a Chinese economic deceleration and the US-China trade tensions were turning off shoppers.
Companies such as Alibaba are at the nexus of a national economic strategy to encourage more domestic consumer spending and thereby lessen the reliance on fickle foreign demand for Chinese exports. (AFP)

After Banning US Businesses, Alibaba lets US Small, Medium Businesses to Sell on Platform

China's e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba will allow small and medium-sized US businesses to sell on Alibaba.com. US businesses, until Tuesday, were only able to buy merchandise on the platform.

Alibaba is looking to juice its growth, which has been held in check by Amazon and threatened by trade tensions between the US and China. Alibaba says the platform has 10 million active business buyers in more than 190 countries and regions.

One third of the order volume is from US businesses, says John Caplan, president of North America B2B and globalisation at Alibaba Group. Sellers will have to pay an annual registration fee of about USD 2,000, but it won't charge commission for each sale, unlike Amazon, Caplan said.

In March, Alibaba.com and Office Depot announced a co-branded online store to expand the reach of both companies with small and medium sized businesses. It said at the time it was part of a broader array of services they were providing to small business.

Over time, the companies intend to help US small businesses sell their products to buyers around the world through Alibaba.com, the wholesale trade site of the Alibaba Group. It marked Alibaba.com's first US partnership with a major retailer.

On Tuesday, it announced that Robinson Fresh, a division of CH Robinson, will be another "anchor seller" on the platform. There are about 30 million small businesses in the US.

The lion's share of business for Group Holdings Ltd. has been providing retailers and brands in the US and around the globe access to the 700 million Chinese customers through its two major marketplaces Taobao and Tmall. (AP)

Alibaba to Use Blockchain Tech for Cross-Border Supply Chains

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, is considering blockchain tech implementation for cross-border supply chains, said Liu Song, vice president of Alibaba Group, according to People's Daily, a largest state-owned newspaper of China.

According to the report, Alibaba is planning to implement blockchain technology for cross-border supply chains to create a closed-loop ecological system that could be linked with local governments.

The Jack Ma promoted firm also plans to develop new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain in the fields of customs brokers, international logistics and trade finances, according to Song’s extended remarks to brokerage and investment bank China Galaxy Securities.

Last month, Alibaba's international online marketplace, Tmall Global, also announced that it had launched a blockchain pilot that would trace imported goods and verify their authenticity and fight food fraud.

In October, Alibaba has announced that its cloud computing arm, Alibaba Cloud, aims to expand their enterprise-level Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) to major international markets including Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia.

In December, the company has also announced the upgrade of its foreign trade integrated service platform to a cross-border supply chain platform.

In India, cross-border wholesale business was one of Alibaba's first businesses in the country and it has already invested over $200 million dollars in its cross-border wholesale trade business in India and according to a report by FactorDaily, the company plans to invest $1 billion over 4-5 years in the India operations of the same.

To recall, in January last year , www.indianweb2.com reported that how a cryptocurrency called TRON has a Alibaba connection as most of its members have been roped in from Alibaba, and also because TRON's founder Justin Sun was the only millennial to attend Hupan University, an elite entrepreneur leadership program in China founded by Alibaba's Jack Ma .

Top featured image - REUTERS/Bobby Yip / Source

FirstCry in Early Talks to Raise upto $150 Mn from Alibaba and SoftBank

India's largest online baby care store FirstCry, which hasn't raised funding in last two years, is in early talks with China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., among others, to raise at least $100-$150 million, reported LiveMint.

According the report, both Alibaba and SoftBank may participate in the proposed funding round only if the latest talks progress to the next stage.

In last couple of year, the funding speculations of FirstCry is being made several times by different media outlets and yet the startup hasn't made it to grabbing any fundraise so far. In June, it was reported that Firstcry was in talks to raise $100-150 million from Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, Chinese internet giant Tencent and an unidentified Chinese investment firm. Prior to this, in September last year, it was reported that the startup was raising equity financing of about $100 million from multiple investors including Temasek Holdings but eventully this too did not materialize.

The LiveMint report further said that while Temasek and Tencent have held talks with FirstCry, they may not invest in the upcoming funding round.

If FirstCry manage to seal the latest discussions with investors, it will mark yet another fairly significant funding this year for India’s startup ecosystem, which is witnessing a massive funding boom that has already been compared to the 2014-15 funding bubble.

According to Tracxn data, this year there were more than two dozen startup fundings amounting to the size of $100 million or more, compared to 22 in last year.

FirstCry had raised a total of $119 million in funding over six rounds. The last funding of $34 million came from a Series D round led by Vertex Vetures, in October, 2016. FirstCry's investors include Mahindra, IDG Ventures India (now Chiratae Ventures), New Enterprise Associates and SAIF Partners, among others.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in 2010, FirstCry has offline stores with an omni-channel approach to increase its sales and presence. The company acquired Mahindra Group’s kids retail brand BabyOye for ₹362 crore in a cash and stock deal in 2016..

BrainBees Solutions, the parent company of FirstCry, has reported narrowing of losses at its online retailing business. In September this year, the Pune-based company reported a loss of Rs 54 crore for the year ended March 2018, as per its financial documents filed with the Registrar of Companies.

Recntly, Gurgaon-based mother and baby care startup MamaEarth raised about $4 million (₹27.5 crore) in a Series A round of funding led by early-stage technology-focussed venture capital (VC) firm Stellaris Ventures.

In September, Mumbai-based BabyChakra raised funding of an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series-B round from several investors, including Mark Mobius, Equanimity Ventures Fund, Facebook director Anand Chandrasekaran and OYO’s Chief Strategy Officer Maninder Gulati.

FirstCry in Early Talks to Raise upto $150 Mn from Alibaba and SoftBank

India's largest online baby care store FirstCry, which hasn't raised funding in last two years, is in early talks with China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., among others, to raise at least $100-$150 million, reported LiveMint.

According the report, both Alibaba and SoftBank may participate in the proposed funding round only if the latest talks progress to the next stage.

In last couple of year, the funding speculations of FirstCry is being made several times by different media outlets and yet the startup hasn't made it to grabbing any fundraise so far. In June, it was reported that Firstcry was in talks to raise $100-150 million from Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, Chinese internet giant Tencent and an unidentified Chinese investment firm. Prior to this, in September last year, it was reported that the startup was raising equity financing of about $100 million from multiple investors including Temasek Holdings but eventully this too did not materialize.

The LiveMint report further said that while Temasek and Tencent have held talks with FirstCry, they may not invest in the upcoming funding round.

If FirstCry manage to seal the latest discussions with investors, it will mark yet another fairly significant funding this year for India’s startup ecosystem, which is witnessing a massive funding boom that has already been compared to the 2014-15 funding bubble.

According to Tracxn data, this year there were more than two dozen startup fundings amounting to the size of $100 million or more, compared to 22 in last year.

FirstCry had raised a total of $119 million in funding over six rounds. The last funding of $34 million came from a Series D round led by Vertex Vetures, in October, 2016. FirstCry's investors include Mahindra, IDG Ventures India (now Chiratae Ventures), New Enterprise Associates and SAIF Partners, among others.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in 2010, FirstCry has offline stores with an omni-channel approach to increase its sales and presence. The company acquired Mahindra Group’s kids retail brand BabyOye for ₹362 crore in a cash and stock deal in 2016..

BrainBees Solutions, the parent company of FirstCry, has reported narrowing of losses at its online retailing business. In September this year, the Pune-based company reported a loss of Rs 54 crore for the year ended March 2018, as per its financial documents filed with the Registrar of Companies.

Recntly, Gurgaon-based mother and baby care startup MamaEarth raised about $4 million (₹27.5 crore) in a Series A round of funding led by early-stage technology-focussed venture capital (VC) firm Stellaris Ventures.

In September, Mumbai-based BabyChakra raised funding of an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series-B round from several investors, including Mark Mobius, Equanimity Ventures Fund, Facebook director Anand Chandrasekaran and OYO’s Chief Strategy Officer Maninder Gulati.

PayTM Mall on Verge of Buying Majority Stake in BigBasket

Paytm Mall, Paytm’s e-commerce platform, is close to pick up a majority stake in online grocery provider BigBasket. The companies are very close to finalize the deal anytime soon, reported Business Standard citing unknown sources.

Both PayTM and BigBasket are portfolio companies of Alibaba. Alibaba invested $200 million in BigBasket in February this year, while for PayTM the Jack Ma founded firm is already one of the biggest investors, thus it could play an important role in BigBasket's acquisition by Paytm Mall.

It is to be noted IndianWeb2 could not verify the report however the pattern suggested that PayTM is indeed interested in BigBasket. In September last year, it was reported that BigBasket could raise Series-E round of funding from investors including Paytm Mall and Alibaba. Eventually in February, the Alibaba invested in BigBasket without any participation from PayTM Mall.

IF the acquisition deal goes through, it will not only give Alibaba a greater hold over India's e-commerce market, which is dominated by the likes of Flipkart and Amazon but will also help both Paytm and BigBasket consolidate revenue through repeat customers.

A report published in Business Standard quoted sources saying that Paytm Mall and BigBasket are discussing the deal, which is in the fast track. But talks are stuck as BigBasket wants the company to be valued 'premium', and also seeks a seat on the Paytm Mall board.

The BigBasket acquisition reports are coming within few days after Paytm's parent, One97 Communications, has received $300 million in fresh funding from Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Grocery retail in India is estimated to be over 60% of the country's total retail market. According to analysts, grocery retail market is worth of anywhere between $400 billion to $600 billion at present with the potential to cross $700 billion by 2022. Online grocery is still small, but analysts see it as having huge potential.

Growing e-commerce industry and increasing internet penetration coupled with increasing smartphone users to increase online grocery sales in India through 2021.

In April, it was reported that ​Nasper-backed online food ordering & delivery startup Swiggy is also planning to launch a medicines and grocery delivery service, as it looks to diversify its business model and boost volume beyond just food ordering.

PayTM Mall on Verge of Buying Majority Stake in BigBasket

Paytm Mall, Paytm’s e-commerce platform, is close to pick up a majority stake in online grocery provider BigBasket. The companies are very close to finalize the deal anytime soon, reported Business Standard citing unknown sources.

Both PayTM and BigBasket are portfolio companies of Alibaba. Alibaba invested $200 million in BigBasket in February this year, while for PayTM the Jack Ma founded firm is already one of the biggest investors, thus it could play an important role in BigBasket's acquisition by Paytm Mall.

It is to be noted IndianWeb2 could not verify the report however the pattern suggested that PayTM is indeed interested in BigBasket. In September last year, it was reported that BigBasket could raise Series-E round of funding from investors including Paytm Mall and Alibaba. Eventually in February, the Alibaba invested in BigBasket without any participation from PayTM Mall.

IF the acquisition deal goes through, it will not only give Alibaba a greater hold over India's e-commerce market, which is dominated by the likes of Flipkart and Amazon but will also help both Paytm and BigBasket consolidate revenue through repeat customers.

A report published in Business Standard quoted sources saying that Paytm Mall and BigBasket are discussing the deal, which is in the fast track. But talks are stuck as BigBasket wants the company to be valued 'premium', and also seeks a seat on the Paytm Mall board.

The BigBasket acquisition reports are coming within few days after Paytm's parent, One97 Communications, has received $300 million in fresh funding from Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Grocery retail in India is estimated to be over 60% of the country's total retail market. According to analysts, grocery retail market is worth of anywhere between $400 billion to $600 billion at present with the potential to cross $700 billion by 2022. Online grocery is still small, but analysts see it as having huge potential.

Growing e-commerce industry and increasing internet penetration coupled with increasing smartphone users to increase online grocery sales in India through 2021.

In April, it was reported that ​Nasper-backed online food ordering & delivery startup Swiggy is also planning to launch a medicines and grocery delivery service, as it looks to diversify its business model and boost volume beyond just food ordering.

Paytm Launches 'AI Cloud for India' with Servers Located Only in India

PayTm's parent firm, One97 Communications Ltd., has partnered Alibaba to launch artificial intellingence-based cloud computing platform 'Paytm AI Cloud for India' for developers, startups and enterprises. The platform offers business-centric apps for organisations that need high-quality solutions for cloud computing, ready-to-use services to automate workflow, easy to integrate payments, among others.

The company said Paytm AI Cloud processes and stores all their consumer data locally in servers located only in India while conforming to the highest security and privacy standards.

Additionally, it also offers in-built CRM, Campaign Management and easy to integrate payment solutions. The platform has also built various tech solutions for the enterprises that includes an affordable, easy-to-access computing services, ready-to-use apps, pattern recognition tech, pre-trained models and predictive computation to businesses.

[caption id="attachment_125699" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Logo of PayTM AI Cloud for India[/caption]

For all this, PayTM has partnered with Alibaba, who is also its major investor, for this Cloud Computing Infrastructure, and will soon offer enterprise-messaging solutions in partnership with DingTalk.

Dingtalk is an enterprise communication and collaboration platform Developed by Alibaba Group. It was founded in 2014 and by 2018 it was one of the world's largest professional communication and management mobile app in China with over 100 million users.

On this launch announcement, Sujit Kumar Mishra, Vice President, Paytm, said in official blog post,"Every new-age organisation needs to be AI-enabled. They need access to infrastructure to quickly sandbox their ideas, run through multiple experiments, and iterate hypothesis without worrying about managing their infrastructure. They need growth engines to acquire customers, engage one-to-one with them, and AI empowered systems to predict their business."

"With these, they need better collaboration and workflow automation tools to become more productive & efficient. Paytm AI Cloud packages all these into one; saving organisations time, money & resources, so they are able to better focus on building products that change the world. At Paytm, we have always ensured the highest standards of customer data privacy and security. Our customers data is processed and stored locally in India with no access to any third party or investors,” said Mishra.

[Top Featured Image - PCMag.com]

Alibaba to Pick 50% Stake Worth $5-6 Billion in Reliance Retail To Launch E-Commerce JV in India

The great Indian consumer market, be it of any sort, is on rampage as within six months of Flipkart acquisition by Walmart, its now China's Alibaba Group Holding who is reportedly in talks with Reliance Retail to enter in a joint venture (JV) worth massive US$5-6 billion.

According to a report by LiveMint, Alibaba’s chairman Jack Ma held talks with Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani, who is also an India's richest man, in July-end in Mumbai and discussed about plan to create a large omnichannel i.e. both online as well offline, retail entity through the proposed JV, the report said.

Alibaba has moved a proposal according to which its willing to pick up a significant stake in Reliance Retail -- preferably 50% -- which will require Alibaba to invest $5-6 billion and it could also result in a strategic JV between Alibaba and Reliance Retail, with a smaller stake held by Alibaba, the report added.

If this massive deal goes through, it will be the largest investment by Alibaba in an Indian company.

In India, Alibaba Holding Group and its affiliates has picked up the stake in number of Indian companies including Paytm, Bigbasket and Zomato, among others.

Citing a person privy to this development, the report added that Alibaba had picked up the stake in Paytm with the objective of benefiting from Paytm’s successful e-commerce and digital wallet business in India. Reliance Retail is planning a similar model like Paytm, and once that happens, Alibaba will benefit the same way it was gaining from its association with Paytm.

Notably, Taobao and its spun off Tmall are two of the world’s largest and most popular online retail marketplaces operating in china and owned by Alibaba group, and both these e-commerce entities have together achieved a total transaction volume of $478.6 billion in fiscal 2016, and hope to double the figure to over $900 billion by 2020. As of February 2018, Taobao had at least 580 million monthly active users, while Tmall had 500 million.

With over 1 billion product listings as of 2016, the combined transaction volume of Taobao a C2C Marketplace, and Tmall.com, a B2C online marketplace, reached 3 trillion yuan in 2017, which is more than that of all US retailers and e-commerce sites combined together.

The JV between Alibaba and Reliance is also being seen as a strategic move to challenge the likes of Flipkart and Amazon who have been making significant inroads in the Indian e-commerce industry. Just few days back, Amazon has completed its five years in India and invested fresh ₹2,700 crore in its India operations.


In February this year, Alibaba has already invested whopping $500 million in India's Bigbasket and Zomato. Last month, the Chinese firm also picked up a $35 million stake in logistics startup Xpressbees, spun out of baby products retailer FirstCry.

About Reliance, its another subsidiary, Reliance Jio, is also planning to make entry into India's online grocery market by linking manufacturers, kirana stores and corner shops to his Reliance Jio customers and mint money.

It may also be recalled that in last November, Adani Wilmar, the company that markets ‘Fortune’ brand of food products in India, also announced its plans to enter the online grocery sales business with a new e-commerce portal and app called ‘Fortune Online’.

Zomato, Swiggy in Talks To Raise New $200 Mn Each from Alibaba, DST Global Respectively

​Hardly three months after raising $200 million from Ant Financials, Zomato is reportedly in talks to raise another fresh $200 million from Alibaba. Coincidentally, Zomato's competitor Swiggy is also close to raise fresh funds up to same amount of $200-million in a new financing round with participation from Yuri Milner’s DST Global, Coatue Management, and Meituan-Dianping, a Beijing, China-based food review and delivery giant.

In February, Alibababa had invested $200 million in Zomato through its affiliate Ant Financials, however this time, Alibaba is looking to directly back the Gurgaon-based food delivery startup in a $200-million financing round, which will peg Zomato’s valuation at $1.5 billion, according to the people privy to funding talks of Zomato.

According to sources cited in a Times of India report, while Zomato’s financing round is in an early stage, Swiggy has already closed its $200-million fund-raise, valuing it at $1 billion after the investment. Although, an official announcement Swiggy's fresh fund-raise is still awaited.

It may be recalled that the new fund-raise of Swiggy is coming at times when it was reported that beside delivering foods online, the startup is also close to start delivering medicines and grocery as it looks to diversify its business model and boost volume beyond just food ordering. This new service will be named as 'Dash'.

The decision of Alibaba to double its investment in Zomato comes right after the Alibaba group bought out China’s food delivery service Ele.me.

Uber, on other hand, is expected to invest $200 million into its food delivery business, UberEats, in India. While Ola, with its recently bought Foodpanda, has already anticipating a substantial growth of its food delivery business in line with other players by committing $200 million in it.

With infuse of fresh capital of about $800 Mn to $1 Bn in food delivery segment startups including all four -- Zomato, Siggy, UberEat and Ola's Foodpanda -- consumers in India can expect increased discounts and promotions, thanks to cut-throat competition ignited by upcoming funding spree into this segment.

Notably, the food delivery segment in India is heating up with new players like UberEats, Ola’s acquisition, for which Ola has committed to invest additional $200 million, to get the slice of food delivery business in India. And now, British food delivery unicorn startup Deliveroo entering the Indian market as well.

According to the sources tracking the sector, Swiggy is currently the largest online food delivery app with about 10 million orders per month while Zomato is clocking approximately 7.5 million orders monthly. Latest numbers for Foodpanda were 40,000 monthly orders, while UberEats was at 20,000-25,000.

Via - Economic Times | Top Image - InShorts.com

Ofo Raises Whopping $866 Million in Latest Funding Round Led by Alibaba

ofo, the world first and largest station-free bike-sharing platform, announced a new $866 million round of funding led by Alibaba Group, with participation from Haofeng Group, Tianhe Capital, Ant Financial and Junli Capital. The strategic financing presents the highest funding record in the bike-sharing industry and marks a new era for operational efficiency of the bike-sharing system.

As a precedent of asset mobilization in the bike-sharing industry, ofo uses a combination of debt and equity financing for this round. ofo will drive long-term success independently with the continuing support of leading investors.

Dai Wei, founder and CEO of ofo said: “As the global leader in the bike-sharing sector, ofo has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. ofo will continue to put our customers first and lead the bike-sharing industry with technological innovation and efficient operations."

According to the recent industry report, ofo has already achieved dominant market place globally. The service improves the urban transport environment by reducing traffic congestion, saving energy and promoting better living. It is expected that the global number of shared bike users will increase to 1 billion in the next two years.

To date, ofo has operations in over 250 cities across 21 countries alongside widespread usage by over 200 million global users with more than 6 billion efficient, convenient and green rides, totaling to 32 million rides per day.

In July 2017, ofo has completed Series E funding of US$700 million, becoming the world’s biggest and most valued bike-sharing company.

ofo has also partnered with the UN Development Programme to achieve the Global Sustainability Goals and launched a new partnership with Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation, in which ofo donated bicycles to girls living in Malawi in need of a safe way to get to school.

As part of the initiative, ofo will also donate the income on the 17th day of every month to celebrate the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

So far, ofo has entered 21 countries: China, Singapore, UK, US, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Austria, Japan, Korea Russia, the Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Spain, Portugal and Israel, Hungary, India and France.

ofo has started operation in more than 50 cities with more than 100,000 bikes outside China. The total number of rides has surpassed 10 million.

In India, Ofo launched its operations in December last year and in January this year tied up with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to support the Pune Cycle Plan -- a comprehensive bicycle master plan for integrated city-wide cycle tracks across Pune. Thereafter, in same month launched its pilot of bicycle sharing services in 7 cities i.e. Indore, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, Coimbatore, and Chennai.

Bicycle Sharing in India - Current Scenerio

Bike-sharing has become a new hotbed in India as the market is already occupied by three local players -- Ola with its Ola Pedals, Zoomcar and recently announced Yulu.

In October, Zoomcar has too launched its bicycle-rental service PEDL, while Ola just launched Ola Pedals on pilot basis. Meanwhile, InMobi co-founder Amit Gupta recently stepped down to launch its new venture which too is bicycle sharing startup Yulu.