Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province Photo: cnsphoto

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba has accelerated expansion into overseas markets with a multi-brand operation to meet local consumer demand in overseas markets, the company's CEO Zhang Yong said on Friday.

Zhang made the remarks during a conference call named Alibaba Investor Day held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, where Alibaba is headquartered. At the conference, Zhang said that the company's three strategies including domestic demand, globalization and advanced technology has progressed.

According to an earnings report released by the company on November 18, Alibaba's global business volume grew 41 percent, with extensive coverage in approximate 200 countries and regions around the world. 

As of September 30, 2021, its international business including AliExpress and Southeast Asian e-commerce business Lazada increased 285 million active annual consumers during one year, with the order volume up 62 percent year-on-year. 

Moreover, Alibaba's overseas business platforms are all listed on the global TOP 20 month active user (MAU) list, and after adding up, the company ranks fourth for overseas MAUs. 

Alongside expansion of its international business, the company has increased its investment in logistical infrastructure abroad. In March 2021, its logistics platform Cainiao handled more than 5 million cross-border parcels, reaching a level equal to that of major international logistical firms. 

During the conference, Zhang Jianfeng, president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said that Alicloud has accelerated its expansion into overseas markets, with 60 percent revenue growth in Southeast Asia.

"Our service team and solutions team are localizing, a very important step for us in our internationalization process," Zhang said, after Alicloud upgraded its overseas organizational structure, setting up a country manager system to better serve local markets.

A latest report released by Gartner showed that Alicloud IaaS infrastructure capability took the first place in the world, winning the highest score in the four core ratings including computing, storage, network and security, which is the first time that Chinese cloud surpassed international vendors including Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

Global Times