Alibaba launches e-commerce school in Bangkok

PanARMENIAN.Net - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is ramping up in Southeast Asia, and its new training program in Bangkok is evidence of its investment, The Next Web reported.

The company held a launch event for the school earlier this week, according to the Alizila blog.

The center will focus on providing resources for its Alibaba.com business-to-business site to small business owners in Thailand. Alibaba has partnered with Web Courses Bangkok, which provides Web, graphic design, photo and e-commerce courses, for the curriculum.

The one-day course costs about $80. Half of the program covers theory on using Alibaba.com to improve an export business, and the other half looks into practical applications and participants’ specific business profiles.

Though Alibaba has been educating business owners in China about its platform for a few years now, this is the company’s first attempt abroad. It also created Ali-Institute, which it spun off in 2009.

Alibaba is in the midst of a makeover. In addition to getting a new look over the next few months, it is gaining more control by buying back Yahoo’s stake in it. The company believes it is on track to surpass Amazon and eBay in terms of total sales volume on its platforms.