Alibaba Group’s cloud operator has announced plans to invest an initial USD 1 billion supporting talent and start-ups across the Asia Pacific region over the next three years. Alibaba Cloud also plans to launch its first data center in the Philippines by end-2021, deploy an innovation center in Malaysia, and officially launch its third data center in Indonesia.
Project AsiaForward
Alibaba Cloud has announced the launch of its Project AsiaForward with an initial USD 1 billion funding and resources to cultivate digital talent pool, empower 100,000 developers and the growth of 100,000 technology startups in Asia Pacific (APAC) over the next three years.
In the Philippines, the company plans to launch its first data center by end-2021, to support the digitalization of local businesses through products and services such as Elastic Compute Service (ECS), database, global network solution, CDN and storage.
In Malaysia, Alibaba Cloud will build its first international innovation center. In collaboration with local partner Handsprofit, the company is offering a one-stop innovation enablement platform for Malaysian SMEs, startups and developers. Various cloud technology and business leadership trainings will be offered through the platform, as well as the nurturing of an ecosystem for venture capital networking, Alibaba said.
In Indonesia, Alibaba Cloud has officially launched the third datacenter, starting to serve customers with offerings across database, security, network, machine learning and data analytics services. The additional center allows Alibaba Cloud to support local businesses interested in adopting cloud technology.
Alibaba Cloud currently operates 75 availability zones in 24 regions around the world.
Project AsiaForward will include three core programmes, namely DigiTalents Forward, focused on digital upskilling; AI Forward, targeting developers; and DigiEntrepreneurs Forward, aimed at connecting promising business ideas with venture capital and real-life opportunities.
The company has also started the DigiTalents Forward programme in Singapore with the School of Computer Science and Engineering (SCSE), and NTU-Alibaba Singapore Joint Research Institute (JRI) at Nanyang Technological University. The parties are planning to launch a variety of AI courses under NTU’s MiniMasters programme.
Alibaba Cloud unveils e-commerce livestreaming service for merchants
Alibaba Cloud has also introduced an e-commerce livestreaming service for merchants to reach shoppers digitally. The platform aims to provide image quality while reducing bit rates, enabling high-resolution live streaming with low bandwidth costs, Alibaba also said. Users can access livestreams with a latency of around 2 seconds. The livestreaming service leverages Alibaba Cloud’s content delivery networks with 2,800 nodes in 70 countries and regions.
The livestreaming platform uses cloud real-time video processing technology to offer an uninterrupted signal transfer between sellers, buyers and the nearest distribution center, Alibaba added.
