Alibaba Cloud Expands SaaS Offerings with Global Launch of Cloud Phone and DingTalk
Alibaba Cloud is broadening its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) portfolio by launching products previously available only in China to global markets. Recently, the company rebranded its "Elastic Cloud Phone" to simply "Cloud Phone," making it accessible in Singapore and Hong Kong.
The Cloud Phone service allows users to rent virtual Android devices hosted on Alibaba Cloud. According to the company, these virtual devices serve multiple purposes, including app testing, game streaming, and providing remote customer support representatives with a phone to communicate with customers and access enterprise data.
These virtual devices operate on Arm servers and utilize the Shenlong virtualization technology. Additionally, Alibaba has introduced a dedicated chip known as the Cloud Infrastructure Processing Unit (CIPU), similar to SmartNICs or "data processing units" employed by other leading cloud providers to optimize workloads.
Users can access Cloud Phones via clients for Windows, macOS, or Android—along with an Alibaba Cloud workspace. Furthermore, Alibaba Cloud is ramping up its enterprise focus with its DingTalk app, a communications and collaboration suite comparable to Microsoft Teams, which has already garnered over 700 million users globally, primarily among consumers.
By the end of 2023, DingTalk claimed 25 million business users across 120,000 clients. The enterprise version includes video conferencing, messaging, document creation, calendaring, and shared cloud storage with newly added generative AI features.
Last week, Alibaba Cloud promoted an upgraded version of DingTalk specifically for enterprise users in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, noting it is a more specialized enhancement of the original platform.
While Alibaba Cloud has not specified the reasons for its global SaaS rollout, expanding into growth markets appears to be a key motivator. The company recently reported a modest 7% year-on-year revenue growth, lagging behind its Western competitors during a time when China's economy requires significant stimulus.
The recent Singles' Day e-commerce sales in November, which traditionally showcase Alibaba's robust technology, saw limited disclosure about sales figures, indicating performance may not have met expectations. Expanding its SaaS customer base beyond China could provide Alibaba Cloud with new revenue streams, even as it faces fierce competition from established players like Google and Microsoft for DingTalk, and Amazon Web Services for its virtual Android services.
