Alibaba Cloud partners WeWork, SoftBank to support companies entering China

Alibaba Cloud, the data intelligence backbone of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has announced its strategic partnership with co-working space provider WeWork and IT consultancy company SoftBank Telecom China to support global businesses across the world entering China.

The partnership will offer a one-stop platform for cloud-based technology solutions, enterprise services, flexible working space, events, and consultancy for business of all sizes looking to enter China or scale up their presence in the market.

“It is a first-of-its-kind opportunity for any businesses focusing on the China market, as they can benefit from the local expertise, vertical-focused world in one package,” Lancelot Guo, vice-president, Alibaba Group, and general manager (strategy and marketing), Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

“With Alibaba Cloud’s innovative technologies and Alibaba’s ecosystem support, we hope to help tackle some common challenges faced by multinational companies entering or growing in China, enabling them to explore more opportunities in the market and stay competitive,” Lancelot Guo added.

According to a company statement, businesses can benefit from cloud and data intelligence technologies, cross-border IT infrastructure, as well as enterprise solutions tailored for different sectors in the collaborative space (private, shared or customised). In addition, programme participants can enjoy flexible broader ecosystem from WeWork in China.

Professional IT consulting services provided by SoftBank Telecom China are also part of the programme benefits, along with go-to-market support, access to local tech communities and other business support from all three partners.

“The partnership is significant to WeWork because we ourselves have been through the journey of setting up and scaling our business in China. When we began our journey here in China back in 2016, we had to adopt a very localised approach to navigate in this very unique business environment,” said Christian Lee, vice-chairman, WeWork Asia.

On top of traditional offerings, programme participants can also enjoy other privileges such as exclusive Alibaba Cloud-hosted technology workshops, marketing opportunities with Alibaba Cloud, discounts on products and services including business registration, business travel booking on WeWork Services Store, as well as training programmes and events organised by WeWork, Alibaba Cloud, SoftBank Telecom China and other programme partners to deepen their understanding of the business environment in China.

The author is in Singapore at the invitation of Alibaba.