Economy
Alibaba Cloud Revamps Global Partnership Ecosystem to Fuel AI-driven Growth
New AI-focused initiatives with an enhanced incentive program, an AI partner accelerator program and revitalized service partner strategy to support global partners and customers
BALI, INDONESIA – Media OutReach Newswire – 3 December 2024 – Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group today announced the launch of its revamped AI-focused partner ecosystem plan, known as “Alibaba Cloud Partner Rainforest Plan” during the Alibaba Cloud Partner Summit 2024 through a series of new initiatives including an AI partner accelerator program, an enhanced incentive program and a revitalized global strategy for service partners. The initiatives aim to foster the growth of global partners and accelerate the development and deployment of cutting-edge artificial intelligence and cloud computing solutions for businesses across various industries worldwide.
“At Alibaba Cloud, we believe that collaboration is the key to unlocking innovation and driving growth. Our global partners are not just participants, they are the architects of a new digital landscape in the AI era.” Selina Yuan, President of International Business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence said during the summit, “Today, with our revamped global partner ecosystem, we are committed to supporting our global partners to jointly reap the benefits of AI era and meet the diverse business demand of global customers.”
New AI-focused Partner Ecosystem initiatives
To meet the surging demand for AI technologies from the global customers, Alibaba Cloud debuted AI Alliance Accelerator Program to build a dedicated AI partner ecosystem through collaboration with 50 AI technology partners and 50 channel partners in 2025.
This program offers selected AI technology partners enhanced technical support focused on AI, expanded distribution channels, collaborative go-to-market resources, and dedicated AI consulting services. Meanwhile, chosen channel partners will benefit from increased financial incentives and market development funds for their AI-related initiatives. By leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s AI capabilities and its global technology ecosystem, the initiative aims to enhance partner enablement and accelerate diverse partners’ digital transformation journey. It also seeks to empower global partners to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the AI era, reaching a broader customer base through Alibaba Cloud’s extensive distribution network of channel partners
Alibaba Cloud has also unveiled an enhanced global system for its service partners, introducing the Revitalized Service Partner Program. This initiative focuses on cultivating new service partners by upskilling channel partner and technology partners with targeted training and empowerment, equipping them with necessary capabilities of consulting, implementation and managed services to diversify their revenue stream and deliver a comprehensive service to the customer. It also seeks to empower existing service partners by expanding their offering to include both product reselling and service delivery. Additionally, leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s Generative AI capabilities, the company has collaborated with service partners to jointly develop the Managed Large Language Model Service and other AI-focused services to foster an AI partner ecosystem and address the diverse digital transformation needs of global customers.
Meanwhile, Alibaba Cloud pledged to extend new strategic partnerships with 18 service partners including Whale Cloud, Bespin Global, Cognizant Worldwide, Deloitte, Accenture and FPT out of the existing 50 global standard service partners via enhanced resource sharing and capability complement, aiming to build a comprehensive service system that meets diverse needs of global customers.
In addition, the company also released its Synergistic Incentive Program designed to strengthen the collaboration between its global technology partners and channel partners, fostering a vibrant and dynamic ecosystem. The program introduces an expanded go-to-market pathway, enabling technology partners to boost revenue by leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s extensive channel network while channel partners gain access to a broader product portfolio, increasing sales opportunities and enhancing profit margins. This initiative drives mutual growth and reinforces Alibaba Cloud’s commitment to empowering its partners and nurturing a robust global ecosystem.
Enhanced Collaborations with Global and Regional Partners
In order to support global customers to reap the benefit of digitalization in the AI era. Alibaba Cloud has also announced enhanced collaboration with innovative technology and channel partners, both globally and regionally, to provide cutting-edge cloud computing and AI products and solutions, fostering a thriving and sustainable ecosystem.
In Indonesia Alibaba Cloud has reached a strategic partnership with Telkom Indonesia to provide innovative and effective AI-supported cloud solutions for the Indonesian community. Additionally, this collaboration aims to develop the digital talent increasingly needed in Indonesia to realize the vision of Indonesia Emas 2045.
In Japan: Alibaba Cloud has partnered with Securai, a Japanese company that provides cloud services and information security solutions, to meet the booming digital transformation requests by Japanese businesses. In particular, Securai will localize Alibaba Cloud’s Zstack service for the Japanese market and provide operational support for the stable continuation of the service. Alibaba Cloud’s Zstack is an enterprise-grade cloud platform designed specifically for enterprise customers based on the Apsara distributed operating system for enhanced self-ownership, security compliance, and autonomous O&M.
In Thailand: Alibaba Cloud signed a MoU with Yell Group, a leading creative digital company based in Thailand. This collaboration aims to address the growing demand for Generative AI and to empower the creative media industry with scalable and reliable cloud-based solutions. Leveraging cutting-edge Generative AI, the company develops applications to support creators in their visual endeavors. To promote industry-wide adoption of AI-driven solutions, Yell Group will utilize Alibaba Cloud’s robust cloud computing capabilities to enhance scalability in the creative sector. Additionally, the partnership will introduce Alibaba Cloud’s media solutions, such as Elastic Desktop Service (EDS) and Object Storage Service (OSS), to foster innovation and growth in this dynamic field.
Alibaba Cloud currently works with about 12,000 partners worldwide, including Salesforce, Fortinet, IBM and Neo4j.
Hashtag: #alibaba
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Alibaba Cloud
Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) services. Alibaba has been named the leading IaaS provider in Asia Pacific by revenue in U.S. dollars since 2018, according to Gartner. It has also maintained its position as one of the world’s leading public cloud IaaS service providers since 2018, according to IDC.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The duo of 11 Plc and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc helped flip the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange from a three-day losing streak to a 0.27 per cent gain on Thursday, August 13.
11 Plc, which used to be known as Mobil Nigeria, garnered N22.28 to close at N245.03 per unit compared with the preceding day’s N222.75 per unit, and CSCS Plc appreciated by N3.76 to N109.76 per share from N106.00 per share.
The gains offset the N10.00 loss recorded by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, closing at N160.00 per unit compared with N170.00 per unit it finished at midweek.
When the bourse closed for the day, the market capitalisation increased by N7.31 billion to N2.727 trillion from N2.720 trillion, and the NASD Security Index (NSI) went up by 12.17 points to 4,544.20 points from 4,532.03 points.
Yesterday, the volume of securities exchanged by investors skyrocketed by 1,173.8 per cent to 1.9 million units from 150,340 units, the value of securities jumped by 1,029.5 per cent to N210.8 million from N18.7 million, and the number of deals soared by 6.3 per cent to 34 deals from 32 deals.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units valued at N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 79.1 million units exchanged for N5.7 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the day as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units transacted for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units traded for N415.7 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira-US Dollar exchange rate remained unchanged in the black market segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday, August 13, at N1,395/$1.
But at the GTBank forex desk, the Nigerian currency gained N3 against the greenback during the session to settle at N1,367/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s rate of N1,370/$1.
Similarly, the local currency further appreciated against the Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) yesterday by N2.93 or 0.22 per cent to trade at N1,357.65/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,360.58/$1.
Equally, the Nigerian Naira improved its value against the Pound Sterling at the official market by N6.94 to quote at N1,834.05, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1,840.99/£1, and against the Euro, it firmed up by N5.01 to close at N1,567.00/€1 versus Wednesday’s N1,572.01/€1.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revealed that interbank FX transactions plunged by 53 per cent to $79.097 million from $168.758 million, as banks recorded a sharp cutback in customers’ US dollar demand, with the number of deals down to 98 from 190.
The apex bank announced the removal of restrictions preventing financial institutions that accessed its Standing Lending Facility (SLF) from participating in primary government securities transactions and FX.
Under a revised framework, institutions that accessed the CBN’s discount window will no longer lose access to the facility because of their participation in the NAFEM or primary auctions of government securities.
As for the cryptocurrency market, prices fell as the expected US inflation report failed to push the asset beyond its established trading range.
The US Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that headline inflation rose 0.1 per cent month over month in July and slowed to 3.4 per cent annually from 3.5 per cent in June. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased 0.2 per cent during the month and 2.5 per cent from a year earlier.
Cardano (ADA) lost 1.3 per cent to close at $0.1821, TRON (TRX) also shrank by 1.3 per cent to $0.3335, Solana (SOL) fell by 1.0 per cent to $75.60, Dogecoin (DOGE) also declined by 1.0 per cent to $0.06981, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 0.9 per cent to sell at $63,152.59, Ethereum (ETH) dipped by 0.8 per cent to $1,877.07, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 0.7 per cent to $608.42, and Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 0.5 per cent to $1.00, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.
By Dipo Olowookere
Weak investor sentiment further crumbled Nigeria’s stock exchange by 0.39 per cent on Thursday, as sell-offs persisted.
Data showed that all the major sectors of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended in the red, with the consumer goods index down by 1.22 per cent. The industrial goods space retreated by 0.75 per cent, the insurance segment depreciated by 0.55 per cent, the banking sector tumbled by 0.27 per cent, and the energy counter receded by 0.07 per cent.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 949.71 points to 243,017.38 points from 243,967.09 points, and the market capitalisation dipped by N613 billion to N156.881 trillion from N157.494 trillion.
Unilever Nigeria led the losers’ chart after it depleted by 9.97 per cent to N118.30, Chellarams dropped 9.66 per cent to close at N10.75, NDIF slumped by 9.55 per cent to N147.70, DAAR Communications crashed by 9.25 per cent to N1.57, and Cornerstone Insurance slipped by 9.09 per cent to N5.00.
On the flip side, International Energy Insurance topped the gainers’ log after it grew by 10.00 per cent to N4.84, John Holt expanded by 9.89 per cent to N10.00, Trans-Nationwide Express rose by 9.75 per cent to N2.59, SUNU Assurances gained 8.48 per cent to settle at N3.58, and NEM Insurance appreciated by 6.25 per cent to N34.00.
Business Post reports that there were 16 appreciating stocks and 41 depreciating stocks, representing a negative market breadth index.
Yesterday, 4.2 billion equities worth N50.7 billion were transacted in 41,454 deals versus the 1.5 billion equities valued at N20.9 billion that exchanged hands in 39,085 deals at midweek.
This indicated that the trading volume, value, and number of deals surged by 180.00 per cent, 142.58 per cent, and 6.06 per cent, respectively.
Cornerstone Insurance was the busiest equity on Thursday, with a turnover of 3.6 billion units valued at N18.4 billion, VFD Group exchanged 151.8 million units worth N1.9 billion, Chams sold 33.8 million units for N153.7 million, First Holdco transacted 28.3 million units worth N3.9 billion, and CMFC traded 24.6 million units valued at N78.2 million.
