With the pandemic fast-tracking businesses’ switch to digital, cloud technology has become a hallmark of digitalization across industries, including the Fintech industry. Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, has been helping its Fintech customers ease the transition to digital and make the most of advanced cloud technologies, to promote inclusive digital finance in the Philippines.
Through its leading fintech and cloud technologies, Alibaba Cloud has been working with local businesses, supporting their efforts to scale up operations and handle greater volumes of digital transactions while achieving more flexibility in enabling how their users transact. To further bolster the growth of the local fintech sector, Alibaba Cloud is also collaborating with its partners to speed up digitalization efforts across the industry.
The country’s fintech sector may still be in the nascent stage, but it sure is thriving and is expected to continue on its upward trajectory. The rising adoption of digital payment solutions and the continuous influx of new innovations in this area amid relentless digitalization across industries and services only reflect the momentum that the fintech market has been gaining. The growing digital asset industry and support by the government to modernize and secure the domestic payment ecosystem are likewise fueling the segment.
“The pivot to digital and cloud infrastructures in recent years has helped create a healthy environment for the fintech sector in the Philippines to flourish. We now see more and more programs being launched across the country to further buttress the market, and these include initiatives by the government and the efforts of tech and fintech companies and organizations. We at Alibaba Cloud hope to empower Filipino enterprises starting with lowering the technological barriers for them through our solutions and various projects,” said Allen Guo, Country Manager for the Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.
Fueling the fintech sector
As a leading public cloud service provider in the Asia Pacific and a member of the FinTech Alliance.ph, the premier trade association of digital players in the country’s digital finance sector, Alibaba Cloud offers its expertise in cloud technology to support companies in their fintech requirements. Besides providing solutions surrounding elastic computing, database, security, storage, network services, machine learning and data analytics, the company continues to develop innovative solutions to address customers’ challenges and pain points and unlock opportunities for companies across the Fintech space.
Alibaba Cloud works with enterprises in their digital transformation and fintech journey through several initiatives such as the Project AsiaForward and Fintech Industry Sandbox Program.
Through the Project AsiaForward, Alibaba Cloud has committed an initial US$1 billion funding and resources to cultivate a million-strong digital talent pool, empower 100,000 developers and support the growth of 100,000 technology start-ups in the Asia Pacific. Since its launch in 2021, the project has benefitted more than 600,000 talents, 14,000 developers and 850 start-ups.
To roll out more learning and business opportunities for start-ups, developers and talents across APAC, Alibaba Cloud teamed up this year with regional accelerators to provide mentorship, capital and access to network. The collaboration opened up such opportunities as open office hours with venture capitalists to guide them on business issues, technology workshops to give participants insights on digitalization tools, and business intelligence webinars to update attendees on the latest industry trends.
With this project, local company Finantier, which promotes financial inclusion by facilitating access to those previously unable to obtain conventional financial services, received US$60,000 (PHP3.1 million) in Alibaba Cloud credits to further integrate cloud solutions into its operations.
Committed to making inclusive financing more accessible to local financial institutions, Alibaba Cloud launched the Fintech Industry Sandbox Program earlier this year in the Philippines. This program, which is a collaboration with FinTech Alliance.ph, lets businesses in the finance sector explore advanced cloud computing products and fintech services from Alibaba Cloud in a risk-free testing environment.
Under the Sandbox program, eligible companies are entitled to as much as US$10,000 in cloud coupons that can be used to adopt Alibaba Cloud’s proven cloud computing and fintech solutions. The enterprises can also access complementary cloud training, technical and industry expertise, and regulatory compliance guidance.
Solidifying collaborations for better service
Beyond being a cloud service provider, Alibaba Cloud aims to be local enterprises’ trusted partner in thriving in the new normal and actualizing the growth opportunities of digital transformation.
Since entering the Philippine market in 2019, Alibaba Cloud has been establishing partnerships not just with industry associations but individual companies as well to offer tailored solutions that can help these companies resolve pain points, increase efficiency, improve service and boost overall competitiveness.
Alibaba Cloud has been working with UBX, the fintech venture studio and fund spinoff of UnionBank of the Philippines, since November 2021. Alibaba Cloud’s Electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) solutions, power Xpanse, UBX’s new open finance platform, in digitalizing the identity verification process, which then reinforces system security and improves efficiency.
This March, Alibaba Cloud entered into yet another partnership, this time with Binangonan Rural Bank (BRB) for the latter’s digital banking app called E-pon. With its local partner Unicloud Technology, Alibaba Cloud will host BRB’s e-money digital app through its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) system that leverages robust computing and AI capabilities.
This partnership will also cover other Alibaba Cloud cloud-based fintech products such as the eKYC solution and Mobile-Platform-as-a Service (mPaas). All these will help BRB digitalize its identity verification process and other mobile payment operations, effectively scale its online payment operations, and deliver increased flexibility to meet user needs in a much more secure and cost-effective manner.
“We are excited to have this opportunity to be part of the progress of digitalization and digital banking in the Philippines through these different partnerships that we’ve established thus far. We look forward to witnessing how the different initiatives and applications such as that of BRB will bolster financial inclusivity in the country and deliver seamless and convenient digital experiences to local consumers,” said Guo.
Gearing up for the future of cloud
As more local enterprises and end-users turn to cloud technology, Alibaba Cloud is even more keen to strengthen its solutions suite. The world’s third-leading and Asia Pacific’s leading IaaS provider with multi-industry experience, Alibaba Cloud is bolstering its ecosystem comprising 20 local partners and localizing technologies and solutions.
“Remote work and learning will remain part of the new normal for some time even as protocols relax, and this is seen with companies adopting a hybrid work setup combining in-office and at-home schedules. All these will mean greater reliance on cloud-based services that can provide robust, resilient, secure and flexible support,” Guo said.
Alibaba Cloud’s survey titled the Role of Cloud in Asia and Confidence in Asian Innovation reveals nearly 90 percent of Philippine businesses are more supportive of using cloud-based IT solutions to grow their businesses compared to pre-pandemic times. A majority of businesses (94%) also view cloud-based IT solutions as a crucial component in mitigating the impact of the pandemic.
To meet its clients’ present and future needs, Alibaba Cloud continues to introduce more advanced products and solutions such as security, database and storage solutions at the same time grows its local team. It also invests in infrastructure development. Last year, it set up the first localized cloud data center in the country. This center offers a comprehensive suite of products and services that addresses vertical industry challenges and will allow local businesses of all sizes to deploy mission-critical workloads while enjoying more reliable cloud services with lower latency.
“Our rich and diverse ecosystem enables us to keep enhancing our technologies and algorithms and deliver cloud technologies that benefit a wide spectrum of customers. Looking to the future, we will continue to grow and bolster our digital ecosystem in the Philippines to better serve market needs,” said Guo.
