Alibaba appoints Truly London for brand push in EMEA

LONDON - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.com has appointed UK-based Truly London as its lead creative agency in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of its US$30 million strategy to promote its brand internationally.

Truly London won the account following a three-way pitch. It has been charged with managing Alibaba’s creative, brand advertising and media buying in EMEA as part of the company’s year-long global marketing campaign.

The account will be managed out of the agency’s London and Bahrain offices. It forms part of Alibaba.com’s $30m (£18.3m) year-long global marketing investment.

Alibaba Group announced in October that it would launch an integrated campaign across 20 countries to bolster its international presence, focusing on key markets Australia, Europe, Hong Kong, the UK and the US.

A representative at the time said the campaign would include online, TV, print, radio, outdoor elements and live events.

Maggie Choo, director of Alibaba.com EMEA says it has already built a base of 2.5 million members across the region and it is growing by an average of 66% per year.

“However, with an estimated 23 million SMEs in Europe alone we see significant scope for helping many more small businesses across the region with cross-border trade,” said Choo.

Alibaba invests USD100 mln in Chengdu China

Chinese B2B e-commerce group Alibaba has signed a cooperative agreement with Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone on its new western base project, making Chengdu the first stop for the group's domestic distribution apart from its Zhejiang headquarters.

Under the agreement, Alibaba will invest USD100 million to build its western base in Chengdu and the business range of this new project will cover relevant services of Alibaba Group's subsidiaries, including Alibaba.com, Taobao.com, Alisoft, Alipay, and Yahoo Koubei. In addition, the base will have various functions such as research, development, background operation, maintenance, disaster recovery, and training.

At the same time, Alisoft, Alibaba's software subsidiary, signed an agreement with Chengdu to open a new operating service center in the city. According to Nong Jiaqing, vice president of Alisoft, the investments in the operating service center will not be included in Alibaba's USD100 million investments in Chengdu. The new project is expected to start operation in July 2009.

The Chengdu base will operate all types of business that Alibaba runs, including R&D, its call center, background operations and maintenance, operation settlement and training.

Alibaba will begin by settling in the city's Tianfu Software Park, then determine which site is best to host its base, which upon completion is expected to provide more than 100,000 jobs.

In return, the municipal government of Chengdu gives full support to Alisoft's new project and local small and medium-sized enterprises which use Alisoft's software will gain a subsidy of CNY1,500.

Alibaba IM Tool Records 4M Users

Alibaba Group's software subsidiary Alisoft has recorded more than 4 million independent users for its instant messaging (IM) tool, "Ali Wang Wang," reports Ccidnet.com. Ali Wang Wang offers nearly 400 Software as a Service (SaaS) products, said the report. At the end of last year, Alisoft reported having exceeded 100 million users on Ali Wang Wang.

Alisoft signed a cooperation agreement with Nanjiang Yuhua Economic Development Zone Committee July 3 to invest more than RMB 50 million in an internet software park in Nanjing, Chengdu Daily reported. Enterprises setting up in the park will be offered preferential tax incentives, funding support and office equipment, the report said.

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