Salesforce to Partner with Alibaba to Offer Its CRM Platform in China

Executive Summary

On July 24, 2019, Salesforce announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba.

• Alibaba will become the exclusive provider of Salesforce to customers in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Salesforce will also become the exclusive enterprise CRM product suite sold by Alibaba.
• The agreement encompasses Salesforce’s CRM platform, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and Salesforce Platform for customers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The agreement notably does not cover Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud. Salesforce’s offerings will run on the Alibaba Cloud service platform.
• Salesforce commented that Alibaba’s advanced, secure infrastructure and knowledge of these markets will empower its global customers with a solution that meets local business needs.
• China tech giants Baidu and Tencent offer their own CRM platforms.