A More Efficient, Innovative and Greener 11.11 Runs Wholly on Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, has once again excelled in its mission of supporting the group’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, thanks to its high-performance computing and innovative technology. Drawing on self-developed infrastructure upgrades, the group saw an 8% year-on-year saving in computing cost per resource unit from April 1 to November 11.
“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 livestreaming technologies. We intend to continue applying these proven capabilities to even better serve our customers and help them to be more efficient, innovative and greener in their own digital transformation journeys,” said Li Cheng, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Alibaba Group.
Doing more with less through cloud-native and serverless innovations
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 a 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 own preferences. They could also make use of the ‘select’ function to enjoy cross-merchant discounts, to pre-order goods and use vouchers for a more rewarding shopping experience.
Innovative technology delivers more immersive consumer experience
A more immersive shopping experience was created this year thanks to Alibaba’s proprietary technology in supporting extended reality. Alibaba’s technology in 3D modeling leverages a neural radiance field (NeRF), 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 invigorating 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 automatic 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 own avatars, check out the products and place them in their virtual shopping carts.
During this year’s 12-day festival from October 31 to November 11, nearly 2 million packages were delivered by Xiaomanlv vehicles, Alibaba’s last-mile logistics vehicle. This is double the package delivery volume from the same period last year. The logistics robot was deployed in over 400 campuses across China, which has greatly reduced the time of queuing for package deliveries during peak hours.
A greener 11.11 powered by clean energy
In addition to its cloud computing solutions helping to reduce energy consumption, Alibaba Cloud’s five hyper-scale data centers across China also doubled the amount of clean energy used to support this year’s 11.11 compared to last year. More than 32 million kilowatt-hours of electricity used by Alibaba Cloud to support 11.11 this year came from renewable energy, up by 30% on a daily basis average compared to last year. Additionally, Alibaba Cloud's Heyuan data center, the cloud company’s largest hyper-scale data center in South China, now runs entirely on clean energy. Alibaba Cloud’s self-developed immersion cooling technology has reduced the energy consumption of the data centers, with power usage effectiveness (PUE) reaching as low as 1.09 - a world-leading level.
Alibaba Cloud has also worked with Tmall to leverage the carbon management platform, Energy Expert. It provided online carbon footprint modeling, calculations and certifications for more than 40 brands in various sectors, including paper & pulp, food and personal care, to help them categorize low-carbon products, identify carbon emission resources and conduct informed sustainability practices to reduce carbon emissions.
About Alibaba Cloud
Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, management and application services, big data analytics, a machine learning platform and IoT services. Alibaba maintained its position as the third leading public cloud IaaS service provider globally since 2018, according to IDC. Alibaba is the world’s third leading and Asia Pacific’s leading IaaS provider by revenue in U.S. dollars since 2018, according to Gartner.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221113005119/en/
Contact information
Xiaoyi Shao
Alibaba Group
+86 18658170996
shaoxiaoyi.sxy@alibaba-inc.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Enerin raises €15 million Series A to industrialise modular high-temperature heat pumps for global industry26.11.2025 11:00:00 EET | Press release
Enerin, a technology leader in high-temperature heat pumps, has raised €15 million (NOK 180 million) in a Series A led by Climentum Capital, The Footprint Firm, Johnson Controls and Move Energy, with participation from PSV Hafnium and Momentum. “This investment marks our shift from pioneering to full industrialisation, bringing proven high-temperature technology from Norway to industries worldwide,” said Arne Høeg, Founder and CEO of Enerin. “Industrial companies are ready to decarbonise high-temperature heat, but the mass market has lacked simple, profitable solutions that fit everyday operations.” Replacing fossil-fuelled industrial boilers — responsible for nearly 20% of global CO₂ emissions — remains one of the toughest challenges in the energy transition, largely because conventional heat pumps can’t cope with the sector’s highly variable process conditions and high temperatures. Enerin’s modular, flexible and standardised system removes such barriers by adapting automatically to
IQM to Invest Over €40 Million to Expand Finland Production Facility, Accelerate Innovation and Fuel Growth26.11.2025 10:49:00 EET | Press release
IQM Quantum Computers, a global leader in superconducting quantum computers, today announced over €40 million investment to expand its state-of-the-art production facility in Finland. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251126943986/en/ This strategic expansion will accelerate the development, fabrication and testing of advanced quantum processing units and the assembly of quantum computers, paving the way for scalable, error-corrected quantum systems that will power the next era of computing. The expansion aligns with the company’s recent Series B fundraise of over $300 million. The facility, which will spread over 8,000 square meters, will expand the company’s cleanroom area quantum data centre. It will also double its assembly line capacity, enabling to produce over 30 full-stack quantum computers per year, helping to meet the growing demand for its systems and support research innovation and development activi
Thredd Powers Successful Migration of BigPay’s Card Portfolio to Next-Gen Platform26.11.2025 10:00:00 EET | Press release
Thredd, the leading next-generation global payments processor, has successfully migrated BigPay’s virtual and physical card portfolio from its previous, legacy processor to Thredd’s next-generation platform, underscoring Thredd’s leadership in complex card portfolio migrations. The migration project, one of several in recent years, included over 2.5 million cards and highlights Thredd’s unique combination of deep migration experience, robust processes, and advanced technology—qualities increasingly critical as the industry faces a wave of modernisation and replatforming. This achievement comes at a pivotal moment for the industry. Industry analysts estimate that retail banks failing to modernise could see 10% to 15% of their payments revenue at risk annually as legacy platforms struggle to keep pace with demands for hyperpersonalization, digital experiences, faster time-to-market, and operational efficiencies. With more than 100 million cards per year expected to move to modern platfor
With Two in Five Employees Undergoing Fertility Treatment Leaving Their Jobs or Considering Quitting, Are Companies Doing Enough?26.11.2025 09:00:00 EET | Press release
An international survey, spanning Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK, has found that many employees experiencing fertility challenges lack support in the workplace, with almost two in five (39%) leaving or considering leaving their roles while undergoing treatment.1 ‘The Impact of Fertility Challenges at Work: International Insights’ survey by Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Fertility Matters at Work and This Can Happen shows that, despite growing awareness of reproductive health, two thirds (67%) who have experienced fertility challenges say that their workplaces do not offer support for employees undergoing fertility treatment, with France the least likely to provide it (88%).1 60% said they were not clearly entitled to time off for fertility appointments, with time recorded as paid leave, unpaid leave or annual leave (26%), and some also reported taking sick leave due to a lack of flexibility (17%).1 With assisted reproduction therapy, including IVF, already accounting for up to 1
Venture Global and Tokyo Gas Announce 20-Year LNG Sales and Purchase Agreement26.11.2025 02:00:00 EET | Press release
Today, Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE: VG) and Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd announced the execution of a new, long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA). Under the SPA, Tokyo Gas will procure 1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG from Venture Global for 20 years, starting in 2030. This deal marks 7.75MTPA of SPAs signed by Venture Global in the last six months. “With nearly 8 MTPA of new long-term commitments signed this year, Venture Global is pleased to build on our commercial momentum through this new partnership with Tokyo Gas,” said Venture Global CEO Mike Sabel. “Tokyo Gas is a pioneer in the LNG industry and leading provider of natural gas to Japan, and we look forward to working with them as we grow our position as a top LNG supplier to Japan. This agreement will contribute significantly to the US-Japan balance of trade over the duration of the SPA, providing Japan with affordable, reliable American LNG.” About Venture Global Venture Global is an American pro
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom