Key Takeaway
China offers a vast consumer market for international brands, but success requires adapting technology, marketing, and products to local conditions. iFIT, a US fitness tech company, partnered with Alibaba to navigate China’s unique digital landscape and compliance regulations. They migrated their infrastructure to Alibaba Cloud and tailored their CRM to local preferences, avoiding issues with cross-border data laws. AI played a crucial role in personalizing iFIT’s extensive fitness content, enabling rapid adaptations and translations. This collaboration has evolved into a proactive partnership, allowing for quick implementation of innovative solutions tailored to Chinese consumers.
For international brands, China offers a vast and enticing consumer market with significant potential, yet it functions within a unique digital landscape.
Achieving success requires more than simply translating existing business models; it necessitates a comprehensive re-engineering of technology, marketing, and products to align with local platforms and regulations. This is a challenge that demands profound adaptation.
This was the challenge faced by the US-based fitness technology company iFIT. “China is a very different market compared to the rest of the world,” explains Jason McMurdie, Senior Vice President of Technology at iFIT. “You need a highly experienced in-country partner who understands the market. To achieve this, we partnered with Alibaba.”
Building a digital foundation
For iFIT, the initial focus was on compliance. This involved navigating China’s regulations on data sovereignty and migrating its core infrastructure, including its SAP ERP system, to local Alibaba Cloud servers. It also meant engaging with consumers on platforms where they are most active: on ‘super-apps’ like Alipay and TaoBao.
Implementing a CRM like Salesforce required a specialized approach. “Salesforce doesn’t have any data centers in China,” explains Forrister Ross, Global Account Executive at Alibaba Cloud, “so when users in China accessed the application, it would pull data across borders, which would violate the cross-border data transfer law.”
The collaboration between Alibaba Cloud and Salesforce not only addresses this legal issue but also mitigates network latency challenges.
The outcome is a platform co-developed over two years, specifically tailored for Chinese users. “We didn’t incorporate Marketing Cloud because email is less frequently used for daily communication,” notes Forrister. “Instead, we concentrated on integrating features that are significant in China. We seamlessly connect Salesforce CRM with the unique local app ecosystem and Alibaba Cloud technology, known as the Connected Experiences Gateway (CXG).”
What started as a vendor relationship has transformed into a deeper partnership. “They’re being very proactive,” Jason says of the Alibaba Cloud team. “That’s been a tremendous help to us.”
AI as an engine for adaptation
With the foundation established, the focus shifted to the product itself. iFIT boasts an extensive library of fitness content—petabytes of video. AI emerged as the tool to unlock this resource for a new audience.
The first step was translation, where Forrister mentions that Alibaba Cloud’s AI model Qwen was able to “match the tone and timbre of the coaches and then automatically translate videos.”
Qwen is now assisting in reshaping this content library, delivering more personalized experiences. “Can we use AI to automatically condense a two-hour workout into 20 minutes for a user with limited time?” Forrister points out.
Even audio is being tailored: the profile for a user on a phone differs from that of someone on a “$20,000 treadmill with a super-surround system,” so AI is “modifying and enhancing audio based on the device it’s being played on.”
This capability to swiftly prototype and implement changes is vital: in a recent instance, Alibaba Cloud delivered a proof of concept just two days after the request.
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