(Yicai) Feb.11 -- Alibaba founder Jack Ma paid a visit today to the company’s second-hand commodity trading platform Xianyu, insiders told Yicai, with the tech giant seeking new ways to integrate artificial intelligence into its businesses.

Xianyu was founded in 2014 and now has over 500 million registered users, more than 40 percent of whom are aged under 30. 

Analysts have said that given the slowdown in growth of Alibaba’s main e-commerce businesses Taobao and Tmall, it has become vital to seize the benefits of AI and connect with younger consumers.

Xianyu is one of four strategic innovative businesses, known as “the four little dragons,” which Alibaba is using as a testing ground for further AI integration. The others are wholesale platform 1688, search engine Quark and workplace collaboration app DingTalk. Quark has recently worked with Tmall to explore new hardware directions such as AI glasses. 

Ma retired as Alibaba chairman in 2019, but he remains the company’s key figure, and his appearance at Xianyu’s Hangzhou office sparked intense interest, with employees scrambling to take a selfie with him.

In December last year, Ma appeared at the 20th-anniversary celebration of Alipay and Ant Group and delivered a speech emphasizing that AI will bring more changes than anyone can imagine in the next 20 years.

Alibaba [HKG: 9988] surged to HKD108.6 (USD13.9) during trading today, the highest point in nearly four months, but closed down 0.57 percent at HKD104.9.

Editor: Tom Litting