₦airaland Forum

Architectural rendering of their automated logistics arm. About 7 of this facility is located in different parts of China

This is why Nigeria needs to move from a resource-based economy to a knowledge based economy

Lets take you back to the humble flat (circled) where Alibaba was born.

Today, it serves as an incubation center for the company's major startup projects

Other parts of the Campus... Full garage for bicycles

One of my favorite spots in the Campus.

This statue serves as a constant reminder to staff and management that the company is nothing without the customers, and they must therefore stay humble regardless of their level of success.

I also love the inscription on the wall... "I thank myself for being diligent".

Inspiring quotes such as this are all over the campus.

One of the numerous staff canteens scattered all over the Campus. Lunch is paid by the company except you want more than the usual fare.

Last pic - leftover food after our lunch. Usual occurrence at every mealtime... story for another day

One of the lessons we took away was prioritizing the needs of staff. Ali Day is the day the company celebrates the family members of staff. Staff bring their family members to work and there is a big celebration.

2nd pic - Pictures of staff are everywhere, demonstrating the value the organization places on its staff

3rd pic - Mass weddings of staff typically holds on Ali Day (sponsored by the company)

More pictures of reception area

Reception area as you walk into the building

Jack Ma (in red jacket) poses at the Great Wall of China with some of the founders of Alibaba way back in 1999. Alibaba was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma in partnership with 17 other founders who were mostly his friends and former students. Very few of them had a good grasp of the IT skills necessary to make the site a reality... but they did!

2nd Pic - one of the early meetings of the team

Main entrance to the Campus comprised of 9 such buildings.

Over 20,000 employees work in this Campus

ALIBABA is currently the second largest ecommerce company in the world today, with a market capitalization of well over $488B (N175.68 trillion) ($83B more than the current GDP of Nigeria), and over 60,000 employees.

CartNG* was recently in China on a working tour of Alibaba and we would like to bring to you some exclusive pictures of Alibaba's HQ in Hangzhou, China.

Be inspired.

www.CartNG.com launched January 1, 2018 and is Nigeria's first ecommerce vendors inspired platform


Justwise

Lalasticlala

CartNG has been in China over the last 2 weeks closely understudying the Alibaba ecommerce model. This upcoming session is therefore an opportunity to share valuable insights with our esteemed vendors and other ecommerce professionals. Attendance is FREE, but you must PRE-REGISTER to attend.

Date: Sunday, November 26, 2017
Venue: Gbagada, Lagos (Exact location will be forwarded to your mail)
Time: 2pm
Pre-registration Link – www.meetup.cartng.com

AGENDA
1. Sharing Session on the Alibaba Experience and the Future of Ecommerce

2. CartNG and Search Engine Optimization Tips

3. Social Media Marketing & Tools

4. Email Marketing and Tools

5. How to Find Hot Products to Sell Online

6. How to sell your product in China to Chinese consumers

CartNG has been in China over the last 2 weeks closely understudying the Alibaba ecommerce model. This upcoming session is therefore an opportunity to share valuable insights with our esteemed vendors and other ecommerce professionals. Attendance is FREE, but you must PRE-REGISTER to attend.

Date: Sunday, November 26, 2017
Venue: Gbagada, Lagos (Exact location will be forwarded to your mail)
Time: 2pm
Pre-registration Link – www.meetup.cartng.com

AGENDA
1. Sharing Session on the Alibaba Experience and the Future of Ecommerce

2. CartNG and Search Engine Optimization Tips

3. Social Media Marketing & Tools

4. Email Marketing and Tools

5. How to Find Hot Products to Sell Online

6. How to sell your product in China to Chinese consumers

Final Tally!

CartNG has been in China over the last 2 weeks closely understudying the Alibaba ecommerce model. This upcoming session is therefore an opportunity to share valuable insights with our esteemed vendors and other ecommerce professionals. Attendance is FREE, but you must PRE-REGISTER to attend.

Date: Sunday, November 26, 2017
Venue: Gbagada, Lagos (Exact location will be forwarded to your mail)
Time: 2pm
Pre-registration Link – www.meetup.cartng.com

AGENDA
1. Sharing Session on the Alibaba Experience and the Future of Ecommerce

2. CartNG and Search Engine Optimization Tips

3. Social Media Marketing & Tools

4. Email Marketing and Tools

5. How to Find Hot Products to Sell Online

6. How to sell your product in China to Chinese consumers

And the figures just keeps growing...

$18billion plus by 3pm!!!

The figures you see here represents value of orders sold in the first 40mins!!!!!

Over $7.5 billion!!!!

And Jack Ma premiered his first Kung-fu movie starring Jack Ma as the star actor

Exhilarating performances from world class acts

Luiz Figo could not score a single goal against this robotic goalkeeper. What is the future of football?

Inside the Mercedez Benz Arena

CartNG.com is in China for the Alibaba 11.11 Shopping Festival, and we are delighted to bring you live feed and behind the scenes reports and pictures from the ground and Alibaba Media Centre.

November 11 is customarily celebrated in China as Singles Day symbolized by the characters 11.11. Alibaba popularized this holiday by positioning it as the number 1 global online shopping festival. The sales from 11.11 last year on Alibaba platforms alone surpassed all the combined online sales on 4th of July, Black Friday and Cyber Monday on all ecommerce platforms in the US combined (including Amazon and Ebay)! This is indeed mindboggling.

The 11.11 Festival kicked of last night (November 10) at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai and featured electrifying performances from globally renowned artists such as Pharell Williams, Jessis J, Nicole Kidman etc.

Pre-register to participate in our Free Experience Sharing Session and learn latest Ecommerce Strategies
https://www.nairaland.com/4192100/free-ecommerce-product-sourcing-digital

chukxie:
This is nice. Welcome ! What's your impression of Shanghai? Ensure you visit The Bund (Former European part of Shanghai) and The French Concession (Former French Quarters). Congratulations on being invited to China under the aegis of Alibaba. It's a huge honour! This invitation is a pointer that your company has potentials that Alibaba hope to tape from/into. May you succeed. Btw, were your fingerprints taken at the POE at Shanghai Pudong Airport?

Thank you for your kind words.

Shanghai is lovely... at least the parts I have visited. Was at the Shanghai Observatory (sited at the 2nd tallest building in the world) yesterday and saw the Bund skyline. Its pretty amazing how much influence the West had in the past.

Fingerprints are taken from everyone at Pudong (my observation).

Power Bank Sharing
You can actually rent a power bank and get charged by the hour!

Smartphones are a prerequisite for living in China. You will practically be at sea without one. But smartphones are notorious for battery drain. Power Bank Sharing comes to the rescue.

How it Works
Go to a power bank vending machine, scan the QR Code and a charged power bank is release to you. You use and return at your convenience and get charged by the hour.

Umbrella Sharing
This is big at major hotels, malls and schools. Malls are everywhere in China!
Umbrella Sharing works in the same mode as bike sharing. Pick an umbrella, scan the QR Code and you are good to go. Drop it off in designated places when you are done and your account is charged.

Let's talk about businesses for the new economy:

Bike Sharing
Bike Sharing in China is big business. Alibaba owns Ofo, while Tencent owns Mobike and there are a number of others. Bicycles fRom these providers litter the streets of Shanghai, such that the City Govt had to put a hold on accepting new market entrants.

How it works
Pick a bike, scan the QR Code with your payment platform, your bike unlocks and you ride away. When you are done, park it in any safe place and your account is automatically charged.

Epayment in China was born largely from ecommerce. Alipay was formed because of the need to bridge the trust issues in payment bebetween Alibaba sellers and buyers... same way we now have Jumia Pay and Konga Pay. And then the use of Alipay exploded to become what it is today.

We were at the ANT Financial Centre yesterday (owners of Alipay) and their setup is pretty amazing. They have already overtaken Visa card and are currently behind Mastercard in the global ranking of payment platforms

The bedrock of all commerce in China is the epayment system. The major payment platforms are Alipay by Alibaba and Wechat by Tencent. The volumes of transactions that happen with mobile payments is mindboggling. After an event last night, Alipay transactions peaked at well over 300k per second!

I have been carrying some cash around but every shop's preferred mode of payment is epayment and it is smooth and easy. Even the fruit seller on the street accepts one form of epayment or the other.

We really had a great time this evening. Came back to the room to soak in a well deserved bubble bath.

Trust guys to wash it all down with alcohol... thankfully this wasn't my table. This beer contains 2.5% alcohol. The guys remarked that is was too light and several bottles of another special drink with 52% alcohol was provided. Some guys can drink sha!

The Chinese have rules for everything, most especially drinking. Refusing to drink with someone can lead to a breach of that relationship. It is however forbidden to persuade or compel a lady to drink alcohol.

So someone called out Nigerians for their love of pepper. That we eat pepper with a side of food (ie pepper is the main dish )

For that comment, Naija represented by ordering the spiciest meal the restaurant could come up with and this is it! The pepper hot... but Naija can never carry last