Contrary to tech firms’ grouse against India’s data protection laws, Alibaba has no issues with the government insisting on data localisation by e-commerce companies. In fact it supports the move.
At the Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference, Simon Hu, President, Alibaba Cloud, said the company insisted on data localisation anywhere, be it In India or Singapore. “It is our principle. Alibaba respects data security and privacy,” he said.
Alibaba has investments in several Indian companies including Paytm, Zomato and BigBasket.
He admitted Chinese companies found it difficult to build trust.
“But Alibaba is different. Our views are different from other companies,” he said. “We have set up a data centre. We are also building a data team that will help provide big data and AI services to Indian companies, he said.
Recently, Alibaba-backed Paytm said it would take only six months for data localisation, while other companies had said it would take at least two years.
Adapt to survive
Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma addressing the conference said, if the manufacturing industry does not adapt to new technologies it will find it difficult to survive.
‘New manufacturing’, as he called it, would disrupt the global manufacturing industry, but “we are going to have abundant opportunities in the next 10 to 15 years.”.
“The pains we are going to face are going to be unprecedented and way out of any expectation. So we have to be fully prepared. People are saying the real manufacturing is disappearing, but I don’t think so. Only the companies that lag in technology will disappear,” he said. But using or being present online doesn’t mean embracing technology. Companies must adopt Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, he said. The next 30 years will see the arrival of more applications that profoundly change every tiny detail of our life.
“We are not changing only the technologies, but also the mindset and ideas that will help create the future,” he added.
“The information technology era is based on ourselves and myself, but in the data technology era, you are benefiting others,” he said. IoT must be intelligent Internet of Things. Data provides the intelligence, he said.
The writer is in Hangzhou at the invitation of Alibaba Group