Alibaba published its 2021 earnings results and celebrated Taobao’s 18th anniversary this week. Just ahead of International Nurses Day, the company’s healthcare arm also introduced a new service that brings elderly care services to consumers’ doorsteps, while at Alibaba Design Week, designers showed off their creative chops and latest innovations as well as a newly updated custom typeface.

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Alibaba Group Reports Q4 and FY2021 Earnings

On Thursday, Alibaba announced its quarterly and full-year financial results. The company had set new historical milestones, with its ecosystem serving more than one billion annual active consumers globally and achieving a record RMB8.1 trillion ($1.2 trillion) in GMV this fiscal year. Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang pointed to healthy growth across all businesses, against the backdrop of macroeconomic recovery and accelerated digitization in China. Read the full transcript from Zhang’s conference call with investors here and the highlights from Alibaba’s earnings results here.  

ABH Documentary Wins Award at WorldFest-Houston Film Fest

Africa’s Business Heroes’ official documentary received a Platinum Remi Award at the 54th annual Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival. The documentary follows the journey of three entrepreneurs – Christelle Kwizera, Mahmud Johnson and Omar Sakr – and their participation in the 2019 Africa’s Business Heroes Prize Competition, created by Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma after making his first trip to the continent. Inspired by the energy and potential of the young people he’d met there, Ma committed to the goal of – over a 10-year period – nurturing 100 entrepreneurs who are building a more sustainable and inclusive economy for the future. Applications for the newest edition of the ABH competition are open through June 7. To learn more, click here.

Taobao Marketplace Marks 18th Anniversary 

Alibaba’s C2C online marketplace Taobao officially turned 18 on May 10. The platform celebrated the milestone with an interactive keyword-search feature, which allowed users to take a trip down memory lane and revisit their very first purchases. Taobao Marketplace was launched in 2003 and has since become China’s biggest online shopping platform – a one-stop super app used by more than 800 million people the country.

On the same day, Alibaba celebrated its annual employee-appreciation day, AliDay. Employees’ family members and friends were invited onto Alibaba campuses for a two-day carnival. Nearly 37,000 people visited on Sunday and Monday, while many more tuned into the celebration virtually.

Alibaba Health Rolls Out Door-to-Door Senior Care Service

Ahead of International Nurses Day, Alibaba’s healthcare arm released a new service to bring elderly care and professional nursing services to consumers’ doorsteps. Users can search for the keyword, “doorstep care,” on its “Dr. Deer” medical app or the Alipay e-wallet to browse and book nursing services, provided by healthcare organizations and certified nurses. Services range from giving injections and applying medicine to postpartum nursing and tending to PICC lines, a method used to deliver nutrients into the bloodstream. The new at-home nursing service is now available in nearly 40 Chinese cities, with plans to expand further to address the needs of China’s aging population.

Alibaba Tops Google and Kantar’s ‘Global Brand Builders’ Ranking

Alibaba Group claimed the number one spot on the annual BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders list this year, released by consulting firm Kantar and Google on Wednesday. Their research leveraged surveys with more than 860,000 consumers in 11 markets to measure the perception of Chinese brands outside of China. “Over the years, we have seen that Chinese companies, who have invested in building their brands, are able to achieve sustainable, quality growth and find resilience during financially stressed times… During this challenging year, those brands have managed to stay the course, and increased their trust and relevance with consumers around the globe,” said Annabel Lin, managing director of Greater China Solution Specialists and APAC International Growth at Google.

New Typeface and Design-Driven Innovations Unveiled at Alibaba Design Week 

During its annual design conference, Alibaba announced that it has upgraded its custom typeface, “Alibaba Sans,” to include Thai and Vietnamese. The updated typeface covers a total of 222,841 characters and 175 languages, available to all members of its ecosystem to use free of charge. The five-day conference, which kicked off on Friday, also showcases a slew of design-driven innovations and initiatives at Alibaba, such as projects that explored how the power of design could support rural farmers. For example, Alibaba’s designers worked with farmers to rebrand their products and design new packaging aimed at younger online shoppers, helping boost their e-commerce sales and income.

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