Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is ramping up its global reach with a significant investment in its international business. The move comes as growth in its domestic-focused platforms Taobao and Tmall is slowing down.
Alibaba has unveiled an upgraded version of its AI-powered translation tool under its international division. The company claims this tool is superior to other products available in the market from Google, DeepL, and ChatGPT. This is according to an evaluation of the new model, Marco MT, by the translation benchmark framework, Flores.
Alibaba’s international division, which is witnessing rapid growth, released this AI translation product as an enhancement to a model it launched about a year ago. The updated product, which boasts half a million merchant users, enables sellers in one country to use the tool to produce product pages in the target market’s language.
The latest version exclusively uses large language models, enabling it to draw on contextual clues such as culture or industry-specific terms, according to Kaifu Zhang, Vice President of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group.
Zhang sees a significant demand for this tool from Europe, the Americas, and emerging markets. He noted that when Alibaba.com’s users are categorized by country, developing nations make up around half of the top 20 active AI tool users.
Chinese businesses are increasingly seeking growth opportunities overseas, particularly in the e-commerce sector. PDD Holdings’ Temu, fast fashion retailer Shein, and ByteDance’s TikTok are among the recent entrants in the global market. A significant number of China-based merchants also sell on Amazon.com.
Since the introduction of Alibaba’s AI translation tool last autumn, over 100 million product listings have reportedly used it. The company charges basic pricing to merchants based on the amount of translated text.
Alibaba’s international business includes platforms such as AliExpress and Lazada. It reported a sales growth of 32% to $4.03 billion in the quarter ended June from a year ago. In contrast, Alibaba’s primary e-commerce business, Taobao and Tmall, saw a 1% year-on-year drop in sales to $15.6 billion.
Analysts from Nomura expect Alibaba’s international revenue to have slightly slowed down to 29% year-on-year growth in the quarter ending September, with operating losses narrowing. However, Alibaba has yet to announce when it will release its quarterly earnings.
