Alibaba Cloud brings big data programme to Malaysia
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, has launched its Malaysia Tianchi Big Data Programme to get experts to collaborate and compete in developing tech solutions.
Backed by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the aim is to incubate 500 data professionals and 300 start-ups in Malaysia within two years by using data intelligence technology through Alibaba Cloud’s cloud computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
This isn’t limited to fintech of course, but Alibaba Cloud says the programme will be integrated into its Tianchi global community which has over 120,000 developers and 2,700 academic institutes and businesses from 77 countries and regions.
By participating in these competitions, the firm says Malaysian experts “will compete with, and learn from, counterparts across the globe to develop best-in-class data technology, keeping Malaysia at the forefront of the global digital economy”. It’s a good point as rivalry keeps you sharp and makes you hone your skills.
Alibaba Cloud also reminds people that in October 2017 it opened a data centre in the country.
Brains and the city
In addition, Alibaba Cloud has launched its Malaysia City Brain initiative in collaboration with MDEC, and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), the city council in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
This is the first time for the City Brain solution to be adopted overseas. A lot of this initial development involves non-fintech stuff such as analysis of big data generated by urban spaces through video and image recognition; and traffic management.
However, Alibaba Cloud says as the City Brain’s functionality expands, “enterprises, start-ups, entrepreneurs, universities, and research institutions will in the future also have the opportunity to access and leverage its AI tools to drive a wide range of innovation”.
This is where fintech opportunities may arise and we’ll keep an eye on what happens.
