(Yicai Global) May 16 -- Alibaba Cloud, the cloud-based services arm of Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group Holding, has brought out a series of new initiatives to empower its ecosystem partners at the firm’s Partner Summit 2023 held in Singapore.

Alibaba Cloud will introduce an independent software vendor acceleration program to provide global ISVs with new financial incentives and more robust technical support to expand their business opportunities in Southeast Asia, according to a press release put out yesterday.

Moreover, the firm will launch a portal to provide product and service training and certification, educational content of topical technology developments, and resources and tools to increase partners’ service capabilities.

“We are committed to growing together with our global partners and providing them with even stronger support to expand their businesses into Southeast Asia and beyond,” Edward Cai, chief commercial officer at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said at yesterday’s summit.

“Together with our partners’ industry know-how, technology capabilities and market insights, we can deliver significant benefits to our customers,” he said.

To bring more tangible benefits to partners outside of China, Alibaba Cloud also announced a series of new financial incentives, including discounts and rebates for rewarding resellers and distributors, and some joint go-to-market initiatives. It forms part of the USD1 billion investment the firm unveiled last year to support global partners in tech innovation and market expansion. 

Alibaba Cloud will offer free trials of more than 50 products to overseas partners, expecting to bring them over 100,000 potential new customers, the Hangzhou-based company noted.

“Our new initiatives showcase our unwavering commitment to helping our global partners thrive and innovate on Alibaba Cloud,” said Selina Yuan, president of international business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

On April 26, Alibaba Cloud announced that it will lower the prices of its core products by between 15 percent and half, with the largest cuts for storage products.

Overseas business has grown more than 20 times in the past five years, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence’s Chief Commercial Officer Cai Yinghua said at the summit.

Alibaba Cloud’s service product infrastructure ranked third globally and first in the Asia Pacific region by market share last year, according to statistics from US research and advisory firm Gartner. Alibaba Cloud is also No. 1 in China’s public cloud market.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione