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Alibaba, like many rival Chinese tech firms, is
racing to introduce Internet and computing capabilities to
various kinds of everyday products, ranging from televisions and
home appliances to cars.
This has the $214-billion company pitched against rivals like
social networking and online entertainment giant Tencent
Holdings Inc., search leader Baidu Inc, e-commerce
competitor JD.com Inc <JD.O> and hotshot smartphone maker Xiaomi
Inc
In this packed field, China's online shopping titan is banking
on its big data analysis and cloud computing abilities to
provide an edge, as it looks to repeat the successes it has seen
in overall e-commerce with more specialized categories.
The automotive business unit includes car marketing services
built around Alibaba's big data analysis, online retail site
Tmall's car sales section and providing loans to help people buy
vehicles, an Alibaba spokeswoman said in an email to Reuters on
Friday.
Almost 50 car brands and 10,000 dealerships have partnered with
Alibaba in China, the company said. Last month, Chinese auto
maker SAIC Motor Corp Ltd said it would join forces with the
e-commerce company to invest 1 billion yuan ($161.08 million) in
a fund to develop Internet-connected cars.
Alibaba's new 'smart living' division is comprised of Tmall's
electrical appliances online shopping category, some cloud
computing operations and online customer-to-customer marketplace
Taobao's crowd funding platform, said the firm. This platform
allows smaller businesses to raise capital from a large group of
investors and promote and sell their goods.
($1 = 6.2080 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI and Paul Carsten in
BEIJING; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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