The company Alibaba, which is extremely popular in China and operates, among other things, the well-known internet marketplace Aliexpress, has such an upgraded headquarters. It offers a wide range of innovative solutions and employs more than 20,000 people.
Alibaba’s headquarters in China
The news portal Cnbc.com got a look inside Alibaba’s global headquarters in the city of Hangzhou, China. This is a monumental building, but it’s not just the company’s headquarters or office space. It’s a so-called “incubator” for all technologies, where this tech giant also tests self-driving cars and automated hotels.
The HQ in Hangzhou is located about an hour’s drive by footflag from Shanghai. However, it’s also important to mention that these are not the only offices this company has. It has multiple offices in Chinese cities, but for example also in Silicon Valley.
If we look at a tour of this building taken by journalists from Cnbc.com, the building is home to approximately 22 000 of the company’s 100 000 global employees. Its main headquarters houses Alibaba’s corporate offices, but also other popular technology brands from sellers, such as Tmall, Taobao, and also Aliexpress, very well known to us.
Alibaba was originally founded 20 years ago as an e-commerce platform. Its founder was the well-known Jack Ma, who only recently stepped down as the company’s chairman. Today, the company has more than 30 subsidiary brands or partner companies, ranging from fintech platforms such as AliPay to the film division Alibaba Pictures.
Here are 5 unique technologies at Alibaba’s headquarters:
The very first tech gadget is facial recognition for secure access to the premises. Just walk through the scanner and then enter the area. However, Alibaba claims it’s an optional option, but Cnbc.com has observed many employees using this method.
Seamless automatic payment for food. That’s also part of the employees’ canteen. Cameras inside the canteen automatically detect selected meals, and payment kiosks then allow employees to pay for food using their employee card or smartphone.
For delivering food or other products, the company uses autonomous vehicles. Already last year, Alibaba announced that it is developing technologies for autonomous driving and will join competitive solutions from Tencent or Baidu.
Another no less important part of the company’s tech elements is retail sales. Thanks to this, customers can scan barcodes in grocery stores to learn more about the products, such as nutritional values. They can also virtually try on clothing by scanning the user’s body.
Have you ever heard of a hotel from the future? This concept is what the Chinese company called Flyzoo is working on. It’s located near the company’s headquarters and is testing room delivery using robots, automated guest check-in and check-out, or automatic door locks with facial recognition.
The campus is also home to the Alibaba Museum, which offers a look at the company’s growth history. There is also a massive wall with sketches of various iconic characters that change the world in the field of technology. Among them you can find Apple founder Steve Jobs, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, billionaire Warren Buffett, and the aforementioned founder Jack Ma.
Do you like Alibaba’s modern base?
This is what the monumental building looks like in a detailed video:
How do you like Alibaba’s headquarters? If you have any more questions about this building, feel free to write them to us below in the comments under the article. Also follow our China Planet website, subscribe to our newsletter, and join our Facebook group.
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