Salesforce.com Inc on Wednesday announced it will team up with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings as the company boosts its global appeal in China's lucrative software marketplace.
The US Cloud service specialist will bring on the table 20 years of tried and tested Cloud computing and client-relationship management experience in its collaboration with one of China's most popular tech companies.
Strong presence in China
Cloud computing is rapidly on the rise today and among the fastest growing businesses on the internet and the San Francisco-based tech firm has, for decades, been engaged in an aggressive campaign to boost its portfolio and online footprint in the midst of stiff rivalry in the market.
Salesforce plans to generate around $28 billion in total sales in the next four years, which is equivalent to about one hundred percent of the tech firm's cash output of $13.3 billion this year.
In its latest blog post, Alibaba bared that it will be the exclusive provider to clients of Salesforce's cloud expertise in the central e-commerce sectors of China, Taiwan, Hongkong, and Macau. "Salesforce will become the exclusive enterprise customer relationship management product suite sold by Alibaba."
Win-win endeavor for both parties
The partnership will enable the two tech companies to benefit from each other's technical acumen: The Chinese tech e-commerce giant does not have Cloud-computing capability of Salesforce that caters to small and medium startups selling via its electronic platforms, thus the team-up with the Cloud-based US tech will address that necessity.
The collaboration will also enable Salesforce access to the massive online audience of Alibaba through its marketing links but also possibly subject the US tech giant to unconditionally agree with China's restrictions and policies on data protection.
Abiding by the rules
The Chinese government's existing policies on cybersecurity applications, which was given full powers in 2017 and has been polished in more detail since that year, mandates all corporate entities operating in the country to have their data kept within China's jurisdiction.
Alibaba's cloud computing segment was the third best in the world cloud market, and the leading platform in China last year, based on research conducted by global advisory agencies IDC and Gartner.
In December last year, Salesforce broke new grounds in the Asian market with a $100- million investment in Japan's tech startups, and its latest venture with Alibaba will give the company better exposure to the region's vast client base.
