A Digital Empire in the Making: China's Outbound Digital Platforms
In this article, we use the example of e-commerce giant Alibaba and its outbound activities in the Asia-Pacific to illustrate how China’s digital platforms have become part of a “digital empire in the making.” The article examines how this emergent digital empire is a manifestation of “going out,...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
USC ANNENBERG PRESS
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/10995?fbclid=IwAR0FZPRRc_vsXI_2OlKZpx79M20SH-VTYqd7sH1KY95Bm6IIJzRf1Ok-I9M http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80351 |
| Summary: | In this article, we use the example of e-commerce giant Alibaba and its outbound activities
in the Asia-Pacific to illustrate how China’s digital platforms have become part of a “digital
empire in the making.” The article examines how this emergent digital empire is a
manifestation of “going out,” a term used by the Chinese government to rally the private
sector (particularly platform capitalists) to internationalize, and how digital champions
such as Alibaba have responded to and embraced an outward-bound strategy. Though the
Asia-Pacific represents an important region for Chinese economic security, especially when
one considers the established business interests there, extension of Chinese influence to
central Asia conjures up a different kind of weida fuxing (great rejuvenation), one that
evokes a great historical past—namely, the Chinese empire. Accordingly, we speculate on
how digital technologies, platforms, and business mergers will facilitate Chinese influence
along the digital Silk Roads. |
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