Going Global | How Far Can Chinese Cloud Service Reach?

In globalization, where Chinese enterprises expand abroad and foreign enterprises start a business in China, digitalization and AI applications have become key competitive advantages.

By 2024, going global has become a consensus within the industry. In the context of globalization, where Chinese enterprises expand abroad and foreign enterprises start a business in China, digitalization and AI applications have become key competitive advantages. Whoever can integrate more convenient and intelligent cloud computing technologies into production and business activities will be the first to occupy a larger market share.

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According to Canalys, the global public cloud revenue is expected to exceed USD 300 billion within a year, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%, and is projected to reach USD 590 billion by 2028. At the same time, global spending on cloud infrastructure services is rapidly growing, with an annual growth rate of 19.7%. Against this background, cloud service providers such as Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and Huawei Cloud are expanding into markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and America. Alibaba Cloud, in particular, has seen its revenue growth surpassing that of leading global players such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, positioning itself in the top three in global market share.

Revently, at the award dinner of 2024 GoGlobal Forum of 100 (GGF2024) with over 1,000 participants, the organizer EqualOcean announced the 2024 GoGlobal Leaders Top 30 list. Song Yingqiao (Bridge Song), the vice president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International, was included in the list as one of the earliest participants and leaders of the global expansion business of leading cloud service providers in China.

The following is an excerpt from an interview between EqualOcean and Vice President Song.

EqualOcean: Hello, Mr. Song. Could you briefly introduce yourself, your current position, and your responsibilities?

Song Yingqiao (Bridge Song):

Hello! I was an early member of HiChina, the largest internet infrastructure service provider in China and even Asia. In September 2009, Alibaba Group fully acquired HiChina, and I joined Alibaba Group. In January 2013, after HiChina and Alibaba Cloud were fully merged, I was mainly responsible for the original business of HiChina. The two companies had a close business relationship in upstream and downstream services, and all of the HiChina products and services, such as domains, virtual hosts, enterprise emails, and website development, were fully migrated to the cloud.

This merger was a perfect integration of business and technologies. HiChina had a solid commercial foundation with over a decade of successful commercialization experience and accumulation in branding, users, and services. In addition, Alibaba Cloud had a strong team and substantial investment in cloud computing technologies, with exceptional product development capabilities.

After four years of transition and integration, which coincided with the accelerated expansion of Alibaba Cloud's international business, I was transferred to the international business management team of Alibaba Cloud in early 2017. I was very lucky to join the team, where I participated in and witnessed the global expansion of Alibaba Cloud. Over the past seven and a half years, I have been responsible for the construction and operations of the international site of Alibaba Cloud (alibabacloud.com) and its online marketing system, key account management for multinational corporations (MNCs), and global expansion of Chinese enterprises. I am currently the vice president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International, primarily in charge of key account management and the sales system for international business.

EqualOcean: Alibaba Cloud is a company that provides products and services based on cloud computing and AI technologies. Under the global trend of digital transformation, Alibaba Cloud products and services naturally have globalization characteristics. Can you tell us how Alibaba Cloud chooses its overseas markets or customers?

Song Yingqiao (Bridge Song): For any company aiming to go global, conducting a forward-looking strategic analysis is crucial when choosing overseas markets and customers. It is important to use various channels and information sources to perform a market analysis. We continuously gather insights into the market by conducting our own market research, referencing third-party reports, and analyzing the business development of competitors to formulate and optimize our business strategies.

Firstly, we prioritize and make strategic planning step by step based on different groups of core target customers. We are used to dividing the target customers of Alibaba Cloud's international business into three categories. The first category is "Chinese people" overseas, which refers to Chinese enterprises expanding abroad. The second category is "foreigners" in China, which refers to foreign multinational enterprises operating in China. The third category is "foreigners" overseas, which refers to local enterprises in other countries. Our user strategy evolves in three steps based on this order: first to help Chinese enterprises expand abroad, then to assist foreign multinational enterprises in entering China, and finally to reach local customers in other countries. From the perspective of the value of users, the first two steps develop the capability to support Chinese enterprises going global and servicing foreign enterprises in China. The final step is an upgrade based on the internationalization capabilities honed in the first two steps, aiming to better serve a wide range of overseas local users. This is the firm mission of our international business team. This customer base will also be the main battlefield for Alibaba Cloud's international business in the future.

From another perspective, market selection is also crucial. We need to consider regional characteristics and user groups, and to analyze various key factors to make informed decisions. The primary strategic market of Alibaba Cloud has always been Southeast Asia. The Southeast Asian market has built-in advantages from the political, economic, and cultural perspectives, and in terms of local relevance of the Chinese internet industry and other rapidly growing industries. Alibaba Cloud has always attached great importance to the Southeast Asian market. For example, we established a data center in Singapore in 2015 and subsequently made a series of investments and deployments in countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand to provide data intelligence solutions and computing capabilities to Southeast Asian customers. Now, Alibaba Cloud is also the company that has the most extensive coverage of data centers (IDCs) in Southeast Asia in the cloud computing industry. Secondly, we plan ahead and invest in some high-growth emerging markets, such as the Middle East, where we built a data center in 2016, and we recently announced plans to build a data center in Mexico. Thirdly, in developed markets such as Europe, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, we proceed with steady cultivation and advancement. We first focus on developing customers including international multinational enterprises entering China and Asia, as well as Chinese enterprises expanding globally. Then, we continuously strengthen the global brand endorsement of Alibaba Cloud, so as to attract more local customers in these regions.

Lastly, our strategy also needs to be refined for different industries. For Alibaba Cloud, which originated from Alibaba Group, years of technical experience during Double 11 has led to the development of unique and advanced cloud computing technologies. We have a self-developed ultra-large-scale general-purpose cloud computing operating system, Apsara Distributed Operating System, which manages millions of servers all over the world to provide cloud computing services across various industries. This has made Alibaba Cloud become the digital economy infrastructure for many sectors within Alibaba Group and Ant Group, as well as a natural fit for the needs of many industries, particularly for some key advantageous industries.

The first is the pan-Internet industry and the technology industry, which have been Alibaba Cloud's main focus for many years. The second is the retail industry, which is another advantageous area for Alibaba Cloud. The third is the fintech industry. Alibaba Cloud has built a solid foundation and influence based on the innovative practices of Alibaba Group and Ant Group. Additionally, leveraging our successful experience in the domestic digital government field, Alibaba Cloud also plans to expand into the government and public affairs sectors in suitable regions to gain more support and endorsement from local governments.

EqualOcean: Focusing on customers, regional markets, and industries is indeed a good strategy for international business. Now can you tell us how do you manage your team? More specifically, how do you implement cross-border collaboration and localized services?

Song Yingqiao (Bridge Song) : I prioritize the combination and mix of talents. I have defined a standard for international talents at Chinese enterprises going global. The standard categorizes talents into four versions.

Version 1.0: Domestic talents with certain overseas experience. These talents are based in China and are responsible for overseas markets. They are at the entry level of international business. Most of these talents are employees who have been engaged in online and offline Internet products and do not have much overseas practical experience or an in-depth understanding of overseas markets.

Version 2.0: Expatriates with practical overseas experience. They are usually stationed overseas by Chinese enterprises to adapt to and familiarize themselves with the local market, and to expand their business in the local area.

Version 3.0: Overseas Chinese talents. These talents were born or educated overseas and have worked overseas for many years. They have an understanding and inheritance of Chinese culture, as well as knowledge and experience of the local market, to help Chinese enterprises expand their business there.

Version 4.0: Local talents in foreign markets. These non-Chinese local talents have a good understanding of both Chinese and Western culture and business, and can accept the management culture and business model of Chinese enterprises.

The mix of the four versions of talent varies at different stages of globalization. Generally, as an enterprise continues to expand internationally, the proportion of Version 4.0 talents increases, while that of Version 1.0 talent decreases, reflecting a shift towards deeper localization.

For example, when I built the online marketing system for the international site of Alibaba Cloud, I only had a team at the head office managing the functionality, content, marketing, and advertising of the website. The team mainly consists of Version 1.0 and Version 2.0 talents. As we enhanced our global support and localization, I began recruiting talents in key overseas regions online, gradually delegating online business to overseas local teams. Each region was assigned several Version 3.0 talents to complement the team at the head office. Gradually, I started to hire Version 4.0 talents for some regions. These talents can create more authentic localization content and activities with a better understanding of local culture, native language, and ideal marketing elements. They can also quickly establish mutual trust with customers because of their identity and cultural background.

However, in the early stages of globalization, having a higher proportion of Version 4.0 talents in the team is not necessarily better. From the perspective of business development (BD), we adjust the talent mix based on the target market's need for localization, cultural considerations, and religious factors. Some markets are more receptive to Chinese or ethnic Chinese talents, while others require more than 50% of local employees. In general, Version 2.0 or 3.0 talents excel in backend functions like pre-sales, customer support, and operations, whereas Version 4.0 talents are crucial for direct customer contact, such as offline sales. For example, in Indonesia, we have a significant proportion of local talents fluent in Bahasa, which is the official language of Indonesia, and in Japan, we have also hired many local employees.

EqualOcean: As the Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International, you also play a role in managing and leading your team. Do you feel any pressure from this role? What strengths do you value the most in your team?

Song Yingqiao (Bridge Song):

I certainly feel a lot of pressure, but people often say that I am a friendly person, and I am indeed not a coercive manager. Alibaba has a standard methodology called "One Map, One Heart, One Battle".

First of all, as managers, when leading a team and business, we must clearly communicate our vision and strategy to reach a consensus. After that, the role of a manager is more about leading by example, motivating, and supporting the team to succeed. I am a self-driven person, and I hope the team members are also self-driven in striving for the overall objectives. At the same time, the team members should not only focus on their specific responsibilities but also understand the bigger picture and seek opportunities for breakthroughs and innovation to help improve the entire team. I aim to create an environment without a strong sense of hierarchy or pressure, where everyone can openly discuss challenges, find solutions together, and then divide and carry out the work. My role is more about mobilizing resources and making necessary decisions.

In addition, I always emphasize the importance of willingness for the team. Alibaba focuses on the willingness, mental strength, intelligence, and physical strength of talents. These are also my criteria for selecting team members. Willingness refers to having a long-term vision and goals and a genuine desire to achieve meaningful goals. We should value even small dreams because they provide lasting motivation. Mental strength refers to resilience and the ability to bounce back in adversity, without getting caught up in minor issues, as well as the ability to face various challenges and changes under the support of willingness. As for intelligence and physical strength, we have already done the filtering work during the resume screening process. So generally, there are no major concerns. Intelligence refers to the ability to identify and resolve problems. Physical strength emphasizes the executive force, passion for life, and ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

EqualOcean: Alibaba Cloud established the Go Global Alliance in 2022. How do you view the role of the Go Global Alliance?

Song Yingqiao (Bridge Song):

Let's start with the experience of Alibaba Cloud as a Chinese company going global. When Alibaba Cloud decided to go global around 2014 or early 2015, it faced many challenges. I joined the international team in early 2017 to take charge of the online business. At that time, I also noticed setbacks in areas ranging from brand marketing to content services. So, when I took over the overseas business afterward, I wanted to create a one-stop service platform for more Chinese companies going global and form a complete service chain to help them avoid detours. I hope these companies do not venture abroad alone but band together as they expand internationally.

We invited key partners from various vertical sectors to join the Go Global Alliance to provide practical guidance and services, enhancing the comprehensiveness of each vertical sector. As going global is a cross-region process, we not only seek partners in China but also continuously develop local partners in the destination countries and regions, such as in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. This ensures that Chinese companies can both successfully expand overseas and succeed in their destinations. In other words, we help companies to go abroad and help ensure they are well-received in the overseas markets.

In addition, we have created a platform for achieving ecological win-win results. Partners in the Go Global Alliance can collaborate across industries, pool resources through joint marketing activities, and effectively promote brand communication and marketing campaigns. On the international site of Alibaba Cloud, we have also set up a dedicated channel for the Go Global Alliance, displaying the brands, products, services, and activities of its member partners to promote co-building and sharing within the ecosystem.

EqualOcean: The era of mobile internet has passed. Recently, Alibaba Cloud has announced an AI-driven strategic plan. How will you seize AI innovation opportunities and successfully communicate them to your customers?

Song Yingqiao (Bridge Song):

In the AI era, from the perspective of products, we continue to focus on customer needs by building comprehensive AI capabilities for customers, from foundational computing power to models, data, and applications. Alibaba Cloud is committed to becoming the preferred cloud computing platform in the AI era. With this goal in mind, we must strengthen our foundational capabilities, primarily in the following aspects:

In terms of computing power, we have built a computing power management platform based on Alibaba Cloud Platform for AI-Lingjun (PAI-Lingjun), an integrated software-hardware computing cluster service. The platform supports various types of computing resources on a single cloud with multiple chips. Additionally, with the support of our proprietary Apsara Distributed Operating System, we can better leverage different types of computing resources.

For large language models (LLMs), we developed a proprietary model named M6 early on and subsequently the Tongyi LLM, while continuously building open source LLMs. Moreover, Alibaba Cloud was the first to propose and implement the concept of Model as a Service (MaaS). We offer both our proprietary LLMs and third-party open source LLMs on a platform called Alibaba Cloud Model Studio, allowing users to call general-purpose LLMs, design and fine-tune their own enterprise-specific LLMs, and significantly reduce their computing costs.

In terms of data, we have been providing a series of products, services, and platform tools for databases and big data processing.

As for applications, we have also developed several typical AI applications, such as Tongyi Qwen, Tongyi Tingwu, and Tongyi Lingma, which lower the barriers for enterprises to use AI models. Users can call APIs through these applications or use our standardized application products and services.

In addition, Alibaba Cloud has an AI developer community called ModelScope, with over two million developers from around the world, providing a space for industry exchanges.

Our overall approach is to first establish a solid AI-driven foundation and use the MaaS mode to support customers in quickly and easily determining their core use cases. Next, we conduct proof of concept (POC) tests, and then gradually expand the scope of application.

EqualOcean: Where will your work focus be in the next two years?

Song Yingqiao (Bridge Song):

Previously, my main focus was on MNCs and overseas expansion. Recently, in addition to routine tasks like managing key accounts and building and optimizing the sales system, my work focus has been on the breakthrough of key accounts in global core regions, particularly in Southeast Asia and China.

EqualOcean: In 2023, EqualOcean advocated the idea "If you don't go global, you will be left behind". In 2024, the idea has shifted to "If you go global blindly, you will be left behind". As one of the 2024 GoGlobal Leaders Top 30 and a participant with experience in the global expansion of cloud computing companies, what advice do you have for entrepreneurs and companies going global?

Song Yingqiao (Bridge Song):

Everyone is aware of the importance of going global. First, when choosing a strategic market, I recommend conducting a thorough assessment of the market space and opportunities, and then determining your strategic priorities based on your strengths and weaknesses. Quickly take small steps, determine priorities, and use a minimal viable product (MVP) for validation. Next, pay attention to localization. Do not simply replicate the business experience in China, make sure that you respect the characteristics of the local market, and pay attention to the local ecosystem and talents, to build more suitable plans and strategies. I believe these two points are the most critical. Also, I sincerely hope that the Go Global Alliance we build can truly help everyone succeed in setting sail to go global!

The article is sourced from EqualOcean

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