(Yicai Global) July 25 -- Salesforce, the world's largest provider of customer relationship management software, has paired up with Alibaba Group Holding to distribute its products in China, intensifying competition in an already cutthroat sector.

The internet giant will be the exclusive provider of Salesforce's cloud-based software, including Sales Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Salesforce Platform, across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the San Francisco-based company said today. In addition, its CRM products for businesses will be the only ones sold by Hangzhou-based Alibaba.

Tech heavyweight Baidu, which runs China's leading internet search engine, unveiled its own CRM product called Aifanfan yesterday.