Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has set up a subsidiary, called Lingyang Intelligent Service Company, which it says will offer "enterprise digital intelligence services."
The new business unit could potentially compete with Microsoft, Oracle and SAP in business intelligence.
Although its online retail division is better known in the West, this is not the first time that Alibaba has aimed to take over parts of the IT world; its cloud computing division is among the most successful in the world.
What will the new company do?
Lingyang will "focus on the customer perspective and help companies make effective decisions and promote growth through data intelligence in cross-platform operations," according to reports by Chinese publication DoNews.
What Lingyang wants to do, explained Peng Xinyu, vice president of Alibaba Group and CEO of the new entity, "is not software as a service (SaaS), but data as a service (DaaS)," contrasting this approach with other SaaS. solutions, most of which are aimed at solving "one-off issues" and "limited to workflow transformation."
With over a billion users worldwide, Alibaba has a lot of existing data ready to be mined.
Lingyang is taking on "the important task of transforming Alibaba Group's accumulated digital capabilities in consumer fields into intelligent products and services," said Zhang Yong, CEO of Alibaba.
Lingyang will have five main product lines: Analysis Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Production and Sales Cloud, Customer Service Cloud, and Development Cloud, and 11 main products, including Dataphin, Bizphin, Quick Audience, Quick BI, Business Advisor, and Operation Advisor.
Alibaba said the new division's team was integrated and upgraded from various core departments within the organization.
The team has apparently previously worked on digital intelligence projects like Alibaba's Double 11 Data Big Screen and 88VIP members, and served LVMH and Hyundai Doosan, as well as companies like Star Macalline, Xiaopeng Motors, Robam Electric and Haidilao.