At the 2023 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit, Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming proposed Alibaba's latest positioning: in the AI era, Alibaba aims to become an open "technology platform enterprise" that serves AI innovation throughout society.
Under the new positioning of "technology platform enterprise", Alibaba will adhere to two things: "first, providing a stable and efficient AI basic service system, and second, creating an open and prosperous AI ecosystem," said Wu Yongming.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time Wu Yongming has mentioned the importance of AI. On September 12th, Wu Yongming took office as the CEO of Alibaba Group, clarifying two strategic priorities in his internal letter: user first and AI driven.
Observers close to Alibaba believe that in the past two months, whether it is this year's "Double 11" or the Yunqi Conference, AI is accelerating its integration with sub businesses such as Alibaba e-commerce and cloud computing.
From platform to "technology platform"
In the concept of economics, a platform is a virtual or real trading place. The platform itself does not produce products, but can facilitate transactions between two or more parties' supply and demand, collect appropriate fees or earn price differences to obtain profits.
Correspondingly to platforms, Platform Economics is a new economic system based on digital technology, composed of data-driven, platform supported, and network collaborative economic activity units.
As one of the typical representatives of the platform economy, Alibaba's new positioning further emphasizes the positioning of technology. Wu Yongming predicted that "there will be more intelligent next-generation products entering our lives. More small and medium-sized enterprises will use AI collaboration to flexibly replace some services that only large enterprises can currently provide
Under this new positioning, Alibaba needs to do two things: "Firstly, provide a stable and efficient AI basic service system, especially strong cloud computing capabilities, to build a solid foundation for training AI in the entire industry and using AI in society. Secondly, create an open and prosperous AI ecosystem," said Wu Yongming.
Why should the new positioning "extend platform capabilities from commodity trading to technology"? Wu Yongming further explained, "Looking back over the past 20 years, we have created digital business infrastructure services that cover transactions, logistics, payment, production, and other aspects, providing strong support for the development of the e-commerce industry. With AI becoming the key to innovation and breakthrough in China's digital economy, Alibaba aims to become an open technology platform enterprise, providing infrastructure for AI innovation and transformation in various industries
Creating AI infrastructure and an open ecosystem
On the morning of November 9th, Wu Yongming further shared his views on the "AI technology revolution". In his view, AI computing is becoming the cornerstone of the entire digital world, becoming the dispatcher and central nervous system of computing resources.
He shared some thoughts around this core viewpoint. One is that AI technology will fundamentally change the way knowledge iteration and social collaboration are carried out. AI technology, represented by large models, carries enormous computing power and has a comprehensive and profound impact on productivity and production relations, as well as the digital and real world.
Secondly, we are at a node where the importance level of traditional computing and AI computing switches, and AI computing will take over the traditional computing resources previously managed by programmers; In addition, AI will directly understand user needs and provide software with the ability to autonomously optimize and upgrade. Based on the above judgment, Wu Yongming believes that the key to developing AI is to create strong infrastructure and an open ecosystem.
Observers close to Alibaba believe that this is the first time that Wu Yongming has elaborated on Alibaba's new positioning and specific strategies in detail. Within the two months since Wu Yongming announced his appointment, the integration of AI and various subsidiary businesses of Alibaba has accelerated.
At the just concluded Yunqi Conference, Wu Yongming and Alibaba Group Chairman Cai Chongxin both appeared. Cai Chongxin also proposed Alibaba Cloud's latest strategy at the opening ceremony, "hoping to become the most open cloud in the AI era." According to his on-site disclosure, "80% of China's technology companies and half of the large model companies are running on Alibaba Cloud
Wu Yongming further pointed out that the dual wheel drive of "AI+cloud computing" is Alibaba Cloud's underlying ability to face the future and support AI infrastructure. According to him, Alibaba is about to open up a 72 billion parameter model. This will be the largest open-source large model with the largest parameter scale in China.
As the fundamental foundation of Alibaba's core business, AI is also accelerating its penetration into e-commerce business. The reporter learned from Taotian Group that in this year's "Double 11", merchants on Taobao Tmall platform have started to use AI tools on a large scale, with AI calls exceeding 1.5 billion times.
It is understood that this year's Tmall "Double 11" is the first large-scale application of AI in the e-commerce field. At present, Taotian Group is targeting merchants and consumers, exploring the organic integration of AI and e-commerce in various aspects such as business operation, content production, and consumer experience, and has launched a series of innovative products around AI.
In terms of business operations, 10 free AI tools for merchants, including "intelligent generation of model images, intelligent data weekly reports, and official customer service robots," have been put into trial on the merchant end of Tmall's "Double 11" this year; At the same time, Alibaba Mama has launched a series of AI products this year, including the Infinite Edition of Wanxiang Platform, Alibaba Mama Bailing, and Wanxiang Laboratory, to scientifically manage seven major scenarios, including product operation, consumer operation, event scenario, and store operation, and to easily and efficiently reach hundreds of millions of consumers on Taobao.
In the field of content production, AIGC has significantly lowered the threshold for content creation. Taobao uses AIGC technology to help merchants create content, achieving better customer acquisition and retention. It is reported that the number of merchants and brands currently applying Taobao AI creative capabilities has exceeded 4 million; Produce over 300 million graphic and textual creative pieces per day for businesses, and over 5 million video creative pieces.
From a platform economy to a technology platform enterprise, Alibaba's fundamental positioning has not changed in the new round of competition driven by the AI wave. The above observer pointed out that from the PC era to the mobile internet era, Alibaba has focused on traditional e-commerce business as its core, building infrastructure for e-commerce trading systems. Entering the AI era, Alibaba still hopes to become an infrastructure. Once the transformation is successful, It is possible to continue sharing the new dividends of the AI era.