From IT to DT: Business Secrets Behind Ali Big Data

From IT to DT: Business Secrets Behind Ali Big Data

To what extent does air pollution affect people's online shopping behavior? What percentage of online consumption belongs to new consumption? Why is there 4 1 in Zhejiang and only 4/in Guangdong among the "Top 100 E-commerce Counties" in China?

The secrets of these e-commerce companies are hidden in the "big data" of Alibaba's business ecology.

"The biggest energy source for manufacturing in the future is not oil, but data." Ma Yun, Chairman of Alibaba's Board of Directors, described the meaning of "data" in this way.

In his view, Alibaba is essentially a data company, and the purpose of Taobao is to obtain retail data and manufacturing data; The purpose of being an ant financial service is to establish a credit system; Logistics is not to deliver packages, but to put these data together. "The computer will understand you better than you." At the same time, the development of the industry is also moving from the IT era to the DT era represented by big data technology.

Within Alibaba, Alibaba's Internet business ecosystem, which consists of e-commerce, internet finance, e-commerce logistics, cloud computing and big data, is also the "soil" for Ali Research Institute to take root.

Specifically, all the massive data of Alibaba platform comes from millions of dynamic small and micro enterprises, individual entrepreneurs and hundreds of millions of consumers. By studying and analyzing their business activities and consumption behaviors, Ali Research Institute can reflect the structure and development trend of a place and even the macro-economy to a certain extent.

With the continuous expansion and extension of Alibaba's ecological circle, Alibaba's data resources will effectively supplement the lag of traditional economic indicators in measuring economic warmth and coldness to a certain extent, and help the government to grasp the operation of microeconomics more comprehensively, timely and accurately.

From IT to DT

Different from the technical research institutes of some enterprises, Song Fei, vice president of Ali Research Institute, told the reporter of China Business News that Ali Research Institute is positioned as a researcher and a think tank. The main research directions include future research (such as information economy), micro-level model innovation research (such as C2B model and cloud organization model), and meso-level industrial internetization research (such as e-commerce logistics, internet finance, rural e-commerce, etc.). ), the macro-level interaction between the new economy and the traditional economy (such as Internet and employment, consumption, import and export, etc.). ), as well as Internet governance research (such as network regulations and e-commerce legislation).

Specific to the data field, it is based on Alibaba's Internet business ecology, starting with enterprise data, employment data, consumption data, commodity data and regional data, and developing a number of data products and services through big data mining and modeling.

For example, the statistical standards of Internet economic data link Internet data with macroeconomic statistical standards, including China city classification standards; Classification standard of network consumption structure; Classification standards of online goods and services, etc.

The statistical database of economic information divided by economic theme includes the statistical database of commodity information; Statistical database of online shopping users' consumption information; Small business and employment statistics database; Database of regional economic statistics.

There is also a "barometer" reflecting the development of e-commerce economy-Alibaba Internet Economy Series Index. These include Alibaba consumer confidence index aCCI, Alibaba online shopping price index aSPI, Alibaba online shopping core price index aSPI-core, Alibaba small business activity index aBAI, and Alibaba e-commerce development index aEDI, which reflects the development level of regional e-commerce. Among them, the existing aSPI is reported to the National Bureau of Statistics monthly.

The data product "Ali Economic Cloud Map" for the decision-making and analysis departments of local governments will introduce local economic overview, panoramic analysis, monitoring and early warning, knowledge service and other functions in stages. Song Fei told reporters that its data can cover administrative units at all levels in provinces, cities, districts and counties across the country. After being authorized, local government users can see the scale, structural characteristics and development trend of local e-commerce transactions generated on Alibaba platform through Ali's economic cloud map.

"With the help of data visualization and multidimensional analysis, users can explore local advantageous industries, monitor consumption trends and structural changes, and compare with surrounding areas." Song Fei said that in the future, the product can also provide an API service model, integrate more macroeconomic data and social public data, paint a picture for the local economy, and bring new perspectives and tools to the government decision-making system in the era of big data.

Data can "speak"

Regarding how to use "big data", Ma Yun mentioned in his internal speech: "In the next few years, all businesses will be digitized and all data will be commercialized."

Among them, the second half of the sentence can be understood as: let the big data generated and accumulated by Alibaba's various businesses enrich Ali's ecology, and at the same time let the data contained in the ecology generate new value, thus feeding back the ecology. This is a complementary circular logic.

Seinfeld told reporters that Sesame Credit under Ant Financial Services, for example, has been approved and prepared by the People's Bank of China for personal credit information. In the future, it will evaluate users' credit by analyzing a large number of online transaction and behavior data, such as users' credit records, behavior preferences, performance ability, identity characteristics, contacts and other information. These credit evaluations can help Internet finance companies draw conclusions about users' repayment willingness and repayment ability, and then provide users with fast credit granting and cash installment services. In essence, "Sesame Credit" is a credit information system, which collects data from the government and financial system and fully analyzes the behavior records of users on platforms such as Taobao and Alipay.

For another example, in the booming field of rural e-commerce, Ali Research Institute began to study the case of "Shaji Model" from 20 10, and a series of data and case-driven rural e-commerce research results have played a role in helping local governments make scientific decisions, promoting the development of local rural e-commerce, creating employment, and developing local economy. By the end of 20 14, there were 2 12 Taobao villages in China. Alibaba also launched the plan of thousands of counties and villages this year, and will invest10 billion yuan to establish an e-commerce service system in rural areas within three to five years.

In addition to helping the business through data analysis, Seinfeld told reporters that sometimes big data reports may be very different from traditional impression conclusions.

Take regional e-commerce as an example. In the list of top 100 e-commerce counties in China released by Ali Research Institute in 20 14, Zhejiang has 4 1 counties, Fujian has 16 counties and Guangdong has only 4 counties, which is far from the traditional impression. In fact, this is due to the obvious differences in the geographical distribution and industrial structure of e-commerce development between Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces.

For another example, the outside world often thinks that online retail has replaced offline retail, but in fact, McKinsey's research report "Online Retail Revolution in China: Online Shopping Boosts Economic Growth" draws on a large number of reports and data from Ali Research Center (predecessor of Ali Research Institute) and Taobao UED user research team, and finally found: "About 60% of online consumption has indeed replaced offline retail; But the remaining 40% is new consumption that will not be generated without online retail. "

"This research result will help all sectors of society accurately understand the relationship between online retail and offline retail, and explore and build a good business development environment."