By Nnamdi Odumody

Alibaba’s B2B e-commerce platform, Tmall, recently launched a new dedicated gateway for consumers to discover new products on its sister Taobao’s app. This is as a result of Tmall’s redesign to position it as a branding powerhouse. and go to platform. for brands launching product debuts in China.

With this collaboration, Taobao users can click on a Tmall icon to access the channel ‘’TMall New Products’’ which features any array of creative content and personalized recommendations to help consumers discover exciting products that just made their debuts in the market. Taobao’s app has nearly 700 million monthly users, and is one of the most visited platforms in China at 7.8 times a day.

From today, customers clicking on the “Tmall” icon in their Taobao mobile app will be directed to the “Tmall New Products” channel, which includes a full array of new features – including Tmall’s “Most Sought-after New Items,” “The Next New Things,” “Limited Editions” and “New Flagships.”

Working with brands and key opinion leaders, the channel will provide customers with in-depth information and recommendations on new products.

“Building on our strong track record, we will continue to invest heavily this year to help Tmall brands and merchants attract traffic and infuse innovation into their supply chain management, product development and cross-disciplinary collaboration,” said president of Taobao and Tmall Jiang Fan.

“Our goal is for Tmall to become the top launchpad for global brands’ debuts. We will provide the necessary support to brands to make their product launches more effective, on target and successful.”

According to Jiang Fan, President of Taobao and Tmall, its goal is to become the top Launchpad for global brands that want to make their products debut in China, and its 2019 strategic focus is to help Tmall brands and merchants attract traffic and infuse innovation into their supply chain management, product development, and cross disciplinary collaboration.

Brands which use Tmalls suite of product debut marketing solutions such as Heybox or TMall Innovation Center which leverages consumer insights to help brands speed up new product development can extend their reach with the Taobao App.

Heybox uses machine learning to bring personalized selection of products to Chinese consumers.

On the first day of pre-sales, Tmall shoppers ordered more than 2,000 jars while over 10,000 orders were recorded by the end of the week. Its global release is slated for April 29^th 2019.

Konga, Jumia and other leading African e-commerce brands, should learn from Taobao, and adopt a strategy tailored to fit local realities for foreign brands wishing to launch new products in the continent.

By Nnamdi Odumody

Fliggy, Alibaba’s online travel platform, is bridging the online and offline customer experience of the hospitality industry. It is leveraging cutting edge technology by collaborating with its sister members of the Alibaba ecosystem – Alibaba A.I Labs and Alibaba Cloud – to transform the hospitality industry with Flyzoo, a 290-room smart hotel in Hangzhou, China.

According to Andy Wang, CEO of Alibaba Future Hotel, the Flyzoo Hotel represents Alibaba’s ambition to merge hospitality with technology and empower the tourism industry to embrace innovation.

Enter the FlyZoo Hotel. Located in Hangzhou, China, the 290-room FlyZoo Hotel was built by Alibaba’s online travel platform, Fliggy, along with other Alibaba Group business units, such as Alibaba A.I. Labs and Alibaba Cloud. Its purpose? To leverage cutting-edge tech to help transform the hospitality industry, one that keeps the sector current with the digital era we’re living in.

Its mobile app enables guests to make reservations, choose the hotel floor of their choice and even the direction their rooms face. Foreign guests require a few steps at a smart kiosk through the assistance of a hotel staff while Chinese customers check in through a seamless process through the app and move straight to their rooms.

Flyzoo utilizes artificial intelligence to engineer seamless experience for its guests. With facial recognition, guests can access the hotels rooms and other facilities rather than keys and key card which remain the norm. It uses the photo generated at check in to verify guests currently lodging at the hotel.

Each of its rooms is equipped with a TMall Genie Smart Assistant which helps guests adjust the temperature, lights, curtains and the TV. The tech also plays music and even answers simple questions – all with a voice command. If they need any room service, TMall Genie will handle it, delivered by an Alibaba robot.

Checkout time for guests is seamless and convenient with provision for notification to the hotel in advance, in case they decide to leave before the standard checkout time, and the rooms will automatically be released after check out.

Flyzoo’s technology makes the hotel smart, convenient, easy to use, freeing hotel staff from routine tasks to focus on delivering a better personalized customer experience for guests.

TETFund Executive Secretary, Suleiman Bogoro, does not like what he sees from most of Nigeria’s 8000 professors. After reading some research proposals coming to TEFFund, he was  moved to crank: “make one to wonder if some of these professors in question are actually the principal investigators in the proposal.” Prof Bogoro has a big point – Nigeria university system needs to advance our knowledge base, but for that to happen, we have to deepen the capabilities of those that teach our students.

The reinstated Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Suleiman Bogoro, has said most Nigerian professors are not capable of getting global grants for research because of poor research proposals.

Despite the growing number of Nigerian professors, said to be about 8000, the TETfund boss is worried that many professors have low capacity to write quality research proposals.

[…]

According to Mr Bogoro, some of the proposals coming to TETFund “make one to wonder if some of these professors in question are actually the principal investigators in the proposal.”

He said about 80 per cent (proposals) are ‘condemned’ because they are poor.

“I have been in some platforms overseas where some Nigerian professors have been invited and they were reluctant to climb the podium because they wanted to get PhD at that stage. It is the title that bothers them not the knowledge,” he said.

Nigerian business and tech communities in Canada are coordinating for me to meet them when I make it in Calgary in coming weeks for Inventure$ (June 5, 2019 – June 7, 2019).  If you want to join, please email my colleague here. Let’s meet and build a Greater Nigeria.

Nigeria < > Canada – commerce, education and progress.

Joe Biden is running for President of the United States. The list is now complete for the Democratic party. He dropped the line few minutes ago: “That’s why I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.” 

Full statement via email below

Nd —

America is an idea. Based on a founding principle that all men are created equal.

It’s an idea that’s stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, and more powerful than any dictator.

It gives hope to the most desperate people on Earth. It instills in every single person in this country the belief that no matter where they start in life, there’s nothing they can’t achieve if they work at it.

Today, that idea is under attack.

We’ve got a president who assigns a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it.

A president who, like most charlatans and demagogues throughout history, seeks only to aggrandize himself, to consolidate his own power — by blaming the “other.”

If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation.

I cannot stand by and watch that happen.

Our core values, our very standing in the world, our democracy, and everything that makes us who we are is at stake.

That’s why I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.

It’s time to get up and remember who we are.

We’re Americans: tough, resilient, but always full of hope.

It’s time to treat each other with dignity again. Build a middle class that works for everybody. Fight back against the incredible abuses of power we’re seeing. It’s time to dig deep and remember that our best days still lie ahead.

It’s time for respected leadership on the world stage — and dignified leadership at home. It’s time for equal opportunity, equal rights, and equal justice. It’s time for an economy that rewards those who do the work. It’s time for a president who will stand up for all of us.

We haven’t always lived up to our founding ideals. But we have never before walked away from them.

I’m running to help make sure we never do.

Today, I want to know if you’re with me. If you are, chip in below:

www.JoeBiden.com/Donate

Let’s go.

—  Joe