Tmall launches cutting-edge gadgets at TES conference
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E-mail China Daily, April 12, 2016
Chinese online shopping website tmall.com, which is backed by Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd, held a technology summit dubbed "TES" on Monday, with the aim of building communication platform for consumer electronics enterprises.
Explaining the connotation of TES, Yin Jing, president of Tmall 3C & Home Appliance Business Unit of Alibaba Group, said that "T" stands for Tmall and technology while "E" is the combination of ecosystem, elaboration and education.
Ying said the summit, whose theme is "making technology fashionable", is the first of its kind held by the company, and will not just be a normal event for partnership building for Tmall's online shop owners. Global cutting-edge gadgets will make their China debut and online distribution and trendy tech topics will be discussed during the keynote speech and panel discussion sessions of the event.
Apple Inc's Worldwide Developers Conference and AWS re:Invent held by Amazon are two existing conference models for the company to learn and compete. "Compared to the 18,000 online broadcasting viewers' volume of the latest AWS re:Invent, the online viewers of our event has surpassed the number," said Ying during his keynote speech at the summit.
Four consumer electronics products from areas such as virtual reality (VR), wearables, home artificial intelligence (AI) and smart television that made their debut on this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (International CES) were announced to kick off their online sales on Tmall for Chinese early adapters during the event.
HTC VIVE, one of the world's hotly discussed VR head-mounted devices on par with Oculus Rift and Sony PS VR, is among the brands that will be introduced. "VR is not just limited to gaming and 360 degree movies, it's the access and tools for lots of application scenes, including housing sales, home decoration, education, medical service and even online shopping like the 'Buy +' project launched by Alibaba," said Zhang Jinpu, president of HTC VIVE China.
"Buy +", or "Buy Plus", is a program unveiled by the Chinese e-commerce giant on April. It presents a concept of the future online shopping experience as using VR devices and 360 degree video shooting to bring buyers a panoramic vision during the shopping process.
Don Wong, CEO and co-founder of Rokid, another enterprise that is selling home AI on Tmall, indicated that for tech startups, early adapters are more easier to attract online than the physical stores with the regards to save costs and time. "Targeting the young generations who live in the first- and second-tier cities that reserve a certain consumption abilities, we believe that e-commerce is one of the best way to promote our products," said Li Huaiyu, CEO of domestic smart television maker Whaley.
On April 5, Consumer Technology Association (CTA), owner and producer of the International Consumer Electronics Show (International CES), announced that it will work with Tmall to hold the second CES Asia in Shanghai next month.
Be it virtual reality or cutting-edge artificial intelligence gadgets, products that are unveiled at the original International CES annually in Las Vegas are going to make their way to China with the help of the e-commerce website. Yin Jing, president of Tmall 3C & Home Appliance Business Unit of Alibaba Group, said that the CES Asia 2016 will trigger the start of collaboration between Alibaba and CTA, and the two sides will extend further cooperation at the International CES 2017 held in Las Vegas.
"The active buyers on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms have surpassed 400 million, which is higher than the entire population of the US," Yin said.
According Alibaba Group research, one quarter of active buyers, who have been born since 1980, are the firm's in-depth consumers, and have contributed 80 percent of the turnover of the platforms. "The key buyers are keen on purchasing high quality products that are not limited to domestic goods, and they are shopping globally through Alibaba's platforms," Yin added. "3C and home appliance products are the pioneers for feeding the demand of the emerging buyers."
Yin said that CES is recognized at the world's incubator of the latest technology breakthroughs in the consumer technology sector. Thanks to Alibaba's existing marketing resources and user base, he is determined to help more foreign technology brands expand to Chinese markets.
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