Alibaba Group has launched the 2023 Alibaba Global E-Commerce Challenge to identify young talent for the future of its international ecommerce operations. The competition is open to university students around the world who are interested in tackling day-to-day ecommerce business challenges with innovative solutions. Candidates will have an opportunity to receive coaching from dedicated Alibaba mentors, while also standing a chance to gain awards and job opportunities in Alibaba’s Global Digital Commerce (GDC) unit.
Globalisation is one of Alibaba’s three main strategic pillars. As we continue to expand our global footprint, we look forward to attracting a more diverse pool of young talent to strengthen our ability to serve merchants and shoppers across our international e-commerce platforms. Through the Global E-Commerce Challenge, we aim to identify high-caliber business leaders of tomorrow for our operations worldwide. It will also serve as a platform for participants to gain first-hand exposure to our international operations and benefit from cross-cultural exchange, which we believe will be a one-of-a-kind experience.
– Lillian Jiang, Chief People Officer, Global Digital Commerce unit, Alibaba
First introduced in 2021, the Global E-commerce Challenge by Alibaba is targeted at talented technical and business minds of tomorrow. Participants will be tasked to develop creative solutions to problems inspired by some of the real day-to-day businesses scenarios of Alibaba’s GDC unit. The challenges in last year’s edition ranged from developing ways for AliExpress to tap into a new audience of French female consumers, identifying the next star product for Spanish shoppers on the platform, and addressing the pain points of Japanese small and medium-sized merchants operating on Alibaba.com.
This year’s competition will begin with a regional round focusing on the East Asia, ASEAN and Americas & Europe regions, which will be conducted online between late March and early April. Eligible candidates will compete in teams and will be assessed based on their ability to identify opportunities and develop creative yet actionable solutions. Three winning teams from each region will eventually compete offline in the final round in late April, for prizes worth up to RMB50,000 (~£6,000) as well as internship and placement opportunities in one of Alibaba’s international business units. Contestants will also benefit from mentorship by experts from Alibaba’s business teams during the course of the competition.
Last year, the Global E-commerce Challenge saw participation from 42 teams of students from around the globe. Eight teams of finalists consisting of students from 13 markets, such as Brazil, France, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the United States and Vietnam, presented their proposals at the virtual finals and tackled challenging questions from senior executives at AliExpress and Alibaba.com.
The 2023 edition of the competition is open for applications from now until 23:59 on March 21, 2023 (Beijing time) to all current students enrolled in a full/part-time university program or those who graduated within the last year. Applicants are encouraged to enrol for the competition as teams of two to four. Fluency in spoken and written English is a must, and proficiency in another language will be an advantage.
