OFFERING $1,000 OF CREDITS TO CUSTOMERS

The Cloud services arm of Alibaba is now supporting its customers whose business have been impacted by the Coronavirus outbreak with free credits to purchase its cloud service.

To ensure business continuity, the cloud giant is offering $1,000 of credits to not just affected customers but organizations involved in fighting the virus as well. Interested customers can fill out a form on Alibaba’s website to express their interest in the offer.

“During this ongoing health crisis, we are working together with several different enterprises whose business has been affected. We are offering them tailored cloud solutions to address the challenges they are facing, including the necessary telecommunication systems to connect remotely,” the company said in an email to customers.

Since the company declared its commitment to fight the outbreak in December last year, Alibaba has been reported to be making significant efforts in this course which includes;

  • Alibaba DAMO Academy, a global AI-related research unit which collaborated with the Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a system that can speed-up diagnosis and analysis of the virus.
  • Alibaba Cloud made its cloud-based AI-powered computing platform available for free to global research institutions to accelerate viral gene-sequencing, protein-screening and other research in treating or preventing the virus.
  • Alibaba Cloud also helped government departments across 20 provinces and counties to develop their online IT management platforms to better keep track of and communicate on the latest developments of the coronavirus outbreak.
  • Earlier, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, donated 100 million yuan ($14.4 million) through his foundation to help find a vaccine for the Wuhan coronavirus.

“We mobilized Alibaba ecosystem’s powerful forces of commerce and technology to fully support the fight against the outbreak, ensure supply of daily necessities for our communities and introduced practical relief measures for our merchants,” said Daniel Zhang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group, during the December result announcement.

“No matter past, present or future, we remain true to our mission and we will support our merchants to overcome this challenging time together.”