Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group saw an eight percent year-on-year saving in computing cost per resource unit from 1 April to 11 November.

"The breadth and depth of cloud technology deployment during this year's 11.11 has once again showcased Alibaba's best cloud and technology practice, be it through fundamental architecture like self-proprietary technology powering high-performance computing and database products or consumer-facing XR (extended reality) and live streaming technologies. We intend to continue applying these proven capabilities even better to serve our customers and help them to be more efficient, innovative, and greener in their digital transformation journeys," said Li Cheng, chief technology officer of Alibaba Group.

"This year's 11.11 pushes the new boundaries for Alibaba Cloud, from innovations in green technology to continuing to trailblaze in cloud computing. We know how significant 11.11 is in e-commerce, and one of our yearly benchmarks is to make the festival as efficient and green as imaginable. We are looking to introduce more proven technologies that have successfully supported this year's 11.11 to Philippine businesses," said Allen Guo, country manager for the Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

Doing more with less

This year's 11.11 was powered by Alibaba Cloud's dedicated processing unit for the Apsara Cloud operating system. The upgraded infrastructure system significantly improved efficiency of computing, storage and network in data centers supporting the event, while also reducing network latency. For example, with this new upgrade supported by cloud-native technology, ordering, pre-sale balance payment, and refunding could be launched simultaneously with an enhanced scalability and lower latency.

During this year's 11.11, the front page of Taobao, one of Alibaba's e-commerce platforms, was upgraded by the latest serverless technology, allowing for automatic scaling with extreme elasticity based on actual workloads.

Alibaba Cloud's cloud-native database products also significantly expanded the capacity of consumers' shopping carts by more than double, from 120 items to 300. The ApsaraDB for Redis Enhanced Edition (Tair), a cloud-based in-memory database service for enterprises, supports new functions such as product grouping and sorting, enabling consumers to organize their shopping cart according to their preferences. They could also use the 'select' function to enjoy cross-merchant discounts, pre-order goods, and use vouchers for a more rewarding shopping experience.

Innovative technology

This year, a more immersive shopping experience was created thanks to Alibaba's proprietary technology supporting extended reality. Alibaba's technology in 3D modeling leverages a neural radiance field, a neural network technology for generating novel views of complex 3D scenes. During this year's 11.11, it assisted luxurious retail and furniture brands, like Burberry, Estee Lauder, and SK-II, to build virtual stores on the e-commerce platform Tmall.

Through self-developed 3D renderings that realistically represent natural light, flames, and natural flowing water, an outdoor nature scene was built for sportswear brands, including Descente (Japan), to showcase its latest products in a vibrant and stimulating environment. Consumers can also view the products in three dimensions, enabling them to inspect details up close or try on their chosen watches and accessories virtually, thanks to AR technologies. Consumers are also free to arrange different items of furniture indoors or tents for outdoor camping.

Another new expressive interaction came from an XR-powered marketplace on Tmall and Taobao. Using the automated 3D space creation technology from Alibaba's research institute DAMO Academy, a virtual shopping street was built, featuring over 700 products from 70 brands, including 30 internationally-recognized franchises, such as Sanrio's iconic Hello Kitty and Hollywood's franchise Minions. Shoppers can choose their avatars, check out the products and place them in their virtual shopping carts.