China’s e-commerce platform have availed themselves of the latest fintech applications to ensure their successful operation during the intensely competitive Double 11 Sales Festival.
During the period from 1 – 11 November Alibaba’s Tmall saw 498.2 billion yuan in sales, for an increase of 26% compared to the same period last year, while chief rival JD.com posted 271.5 billion yuan in sales, for a 33% rise, as China’s economy continues to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fintech played a major role in ensuring that the systems of China’s e-commerce giants operated smoothly during the intensely competitive festival period.
“During this year’s Double 11, Alibaba placed its entire fate on the cloud,” said Alibaba’s chief tech officer Cheng Li (程立), highlighting the ability of “comprehensive cloud nativization” to reduce IT costs for peak value transactions by 80% compared to just four years ago.
Alibaba’s copious tech investments in recent years have led to the development of the Feitian cloud operating system (飞天云操作系统), the Shenlong Cloud Server (神龙云服务器), as well as the PolarDB and OceanBase cloud native databases.
JD.com highlighted the use of blockchain technology to provide fraud-prevention and product tracking services for a range of goods, including cosmetics, luxury items, fresh food, maternity goods, pharmaceuticals and cross-border products.
According to JD.com the e-commerce platform worked with over 1,000 cooperating brands to place 1 billion data items on chain, enabling consumers to make more than 7.5 million “quality tracing” inquiries.
“Artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other technologies are extremely important for ensuring the delivery and security of purchases…[Double 11] is a live combat test for the tech capabilities of all the e-commerce platforms,” said Yu Baicheng (于百程), head of the 01Caijing Research Institute, to Securities Daily.
“The main application of blockchain is product tracing services, to verify the status and authenticity of goods, and raise the trust of consumers.
“During the Double 11 period tracing data and inquiries all rise sharply, creating a challenge for the speed of blockchain applications.”
