Alibaba Software (Shanghai) and Microsoft China announced on April 24 that they had signed a strategic cooperation memo during the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA). They will expand strategic cooperation in e-commerce and information technology service for small and medium-sized enterprises as well as commercial organizations. They will cooperate on research and development of such online services as e-commerce, enterprise management, office automation and enterprise communication.

It is hoped that this joint initiative between Microsoft and Alibaba will provide 20 million small and medium-sized enterprises with an online software service platform built by Alibaba Software which will give them the option of paying when they need it. Alibaba and Microsoft will also be looking at developing innovative applications for these businesses and cooperating to improve mobile computing, digital home terminals and user experience technology based on Microsoft Office.

Statistics show that as of the end of 2006, China had more than 29.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises, 99.5 percent of all enterprises in China. Less than 20 percent of those used software to manage their enterprises. As of the end of March, Alibaba Software had 19 million registered users, covering three key fields including e-commerce, software management and instant messaging.

By People's Daily Online