Alibaba Innovative Strategy Essay
Alibaba is one of the world’s most re-known e-commerce businesses serving merchants from across the globe. Based in Hangzhou, China, the company does a significant share of the internet-based merchant business. Established towards the end of the 20th century, the company has a market share of 60% (Yun et al., 2020). Despite starting with a different business idea, the firm’s owner re-strategized into Alibaba to attract more opportunities. Jack Ma invented Haibo Translation Company in 1992, then Alibaba followed after, growing significantly over the last two decades (Yun et al., 2020). Combined with China’s welcoming attitude towards science, technology, and innovation, Alibaba has become better in terms of performance (Yun et al., 2020). Therefore, Alibaba was established and further designed to bring more profits innovatively.
Analysts in the market rank the company as the best business-to-business platform. Consequently, the company hosts most of the online platforms’ trading activities. Alibaba is one of the companies that resisted the economic recession of the 2000s that led to the depletion of many IT companies in China (Yun et al., 2020). In addition to penetrating the bubble, Alibaba has enabled small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from China to reach out to global markets from all over the world. Alibaba connects millions of business platforms from China with buyers from overseas accessing online services (Yun et al., 2020). Alibaba has fought with online fraud that appears to drive away potential clients. Through innovative ideas like Fraud Risk Management (FRM), the firm can confidently provide e-commerce services for multiple businesses from China and beyond. Some of the systems added for security against online fraud include a trust system, payment system, and search system (Yun et al., 2020). Thus, Alibaba serves a large market in China and globally.
Alibaba as a company largely bases on open innovation as a strategy for dominating the e-commerce market. Available design helps the company to develop better policies that govern the business activities into higher performances. The method of open innovation includes both markets and technologies alongside emerging business ideas that go beyond the company itself (Yun et al., 2020). The free, dynamic process of design comprises three fundamental steps. The open innovation method follows the outside-in approach stages, inside-out process, and a coupled process (Yun et al., 2020). Through the free operation of innovation, Alibaba has shifted from producer to user innovation.
Alitrip is one of Alibaba’s demonstration of how innovation boosts an organization. The institution has openly classified customers in the travel service to smoothen service acquisition and delivery. Alitrip visualizes on availing multiple services for customer segments in the travel sector, including hotels, theme parks, and restaurants. For example, Alitrip offers domestic and international tickets for airlines, trains, and bus-meant travel, alongside hotel reservations and vacation packages for tourists (Alibaba Group Holding Limited, 2020).
The business purposes of attracting and retain more customers through various policies like a refund. Refunding the consumer helps establish a consumer protection fund that convinces online buyers who doubt the reliability. The Alitrip organization integrates and avails crucial real-time information like rooms’ availability (Alibaba Group Holding Limited, 2020). As such, Alibaba effectively innovates customer segments to ensure satisfactory services for specific clients.
References
Alibaba Group Holding Limited. (2020). Form 20-F. United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved from https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/pdf/form20F_170615.pdf
Yun, J. J., Zhao, X., Park, K., & Shi, L. (2020). Sustainability Condition of Open Innovation: Dynamic Growth of Alibaba from SME to Large Enterprise. Sustainability, 12(11), 4379. Retrieved from https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4379/pdf
