Alibaba: Advancing technology to serve thousands of industries

—Winner of Innovation Breakthrough,2024 World Internet Conference Distinguished Contribution Award for Enterprises 

Founded in 1999, Alibaba Group is a technology company with the mission of making it easy to do business anywhere. Over the past 25 years, Alibaba has built a thriving internet platform ecosystem through continuous technological innovation and business expansion. Its business portfolio now spans Taobao, Tmall, international digital commerce, cloud intelligence, local services, Cainiao smart logistics network, and digital media and entertainment, along with subsidiaries like DingTalk, Fliggy, and Lingxi Games. Alibaba's e-commerce platform serves one billion consumers in China and over 300 million overseas consumers. Alibaba Cloud is the leading cloud computing service provider in the Asia-Pacific region and ranks among the top globally. with services adopted by 80 percent of China's tech companies, 60 percent of A-share listed firms, and 65 percent of specialized and sophisticated enterprises.

Innovation has always been central to Alibaba's strategy. The company  remains high-intensity research and development investment,  using technological advancements to drive business growth. Through platforms like Taobao and Tmall, Alibaba provides one-stop digital business solutions that help millions of small- and medium-sized enterprises efficiently reach global consumers and promoting dual circulation strategy. The launch of the Tmall's Double 11 Shopping Festival has unlocked consumer potential, supported brand growth, and contributed to the prosperity of China's digital economy. In the cloud computing field, Alibaba's Feitian system is China's only independently developed cloud computing operating system, which has won multiple national science and technology awards.

In the AI era, Alibaba is focused on two key priorities: first, continuously improving AI infrastructure and supporting systems; second, adhering to an open-source and collaborative approach with ecosystem partners to transform AI capabilities into productivity across a wide range of industries. Over the past two years, Alibaba has made substantial investments in AI infrastructure and large language model (LLM) research and development. Alibaba Cloud has accelerated the shift to GPU-centric computing paradigms, with over half of China's LLM companies operating on Alibaba Cloud. The self-developed Tongyi Qianwen (Qwen) model series has undergone multiple iterations and are now on par with international top-tier models. The Qwen open-source models have been downloaded over 40 million times, competing with US models like Llama.

Looking ahead, Alibaba will continue to deepen its efforts in core technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence. It remains committed to using advanced technologies to serve society, support the development of the real economy, embrace the productivity revolution of the AI era, and accelerate the intelligent transformation of thousands of industries.

The World Internet Conference launched its Distinguished Contribution Award in 2024 to recognize individuals and enterprises that have made outstanding contributions to the global internet sector. The first award ceremony was held at last year's Wuzhen Summit, where seven global leaders and 14 renowned companies were honored.

The award for enterprises is divided into three categories: Social Contribution, Innovation Breakthrough, and Growth Potential. The winners come from diverse sectors, including internet platforms, mobile communications, artificial intelligence, chip design, energy and power, and cybersecurity. The award paints a vibrant and prosperous picture of the global internet ecosystem, encouraging more excellent enterprises to contribute to the development of the internet industry and explore the infinite possibilities of the digital future.