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Alibaba eyes logistics growth in LatAm as China commerce slows • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 15, 2022Posted in alibaba, brazil, China, Commerce, eCommerce, latin americaNo Comments

Cainiao, the logistics arm of Alibaba, is traveling far from home to seek expansion for its business. The company recently launched its first parcel distribution center in Brazil, adding to its regional network of sorting centers in Mexico and Chile, it said Monday. Alibaba’s e-commerce business in China has been hurt by a combination of a cooling economy and aggressive rivals like Pinduoduo. For the first time, the firm didn’t disclose the sales tally for its annual “Singles Day” shopping festival, which fell on November 11 and used to come with a Super Bowl-like gala featuring pop idols and Jack Ma himself. Cainiao has been following AliExpress abroad, helping the Alibaba-owned cross-border marketplace deliver Chinese goods to consumers around the world. But it’s now ramping up domestic services in some countries, hoping to turn local retailers into its clients. Earlier this year, the logistics giant began providing express courier service in Brazil, which now spans over 1,000 cities. The new facility in Brazil is slated to further boost Cainiao’s presence in the country. The plan is to open nine more distribution centers in seven states and set up 1,000 “smart lockers” across ten cities over the next three years. Smart lockers, which let customers pick up their e-commerce packages, have become a common sight in China. It saves couriers from running up and down buildings to deliver to people’s doorstep and helps reduce human contact during COVID-19 times. In Brazil, Cainiao aims to use the infrastructure for intra-city and cross-border logistics services as well as food delivery in the future. One of Cainiao’s smart locker clients is Piticas, a retail franchise focused on geek and pop culture products. “Our consumers can shop online and receive their parcels in a few days. In the future, we look forward to cooperating with Cainiao to utilize its smart lockers, which gives our customers more options for pick-up, as well as imports from China to Brazil, further increasing the efficiency of our supply chain,” said Vinicius Rossetti, CEO of Piticas, in a statement. Cainiao also wants to help Brazilian merchants export goods like coffee, nuts, and propolis to China, reversing the traditional trade route. The company currently operates eight weekly chartered flights between China and Brazil and plans to add more air and sea routes between the countries. In July, Cainiao opened its sorting center in Israel, bringing the number of its overseas sorting centers in use to ten at the time. As of June, Cainiao had more than 7,700 smart lockers in operation in Europe. The logistics unit accounted for roughly 5.6% of Alibaba’s revenues in the three months ended June.

Instagram expands AI-powered age verification program to India and Brazil • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 14, 2022Posted in age verification, Apps, brazil, india, InstagramNo Comments

Instagram, facing scrutiny from safety advocates, started testing a program in the U.S. earlier this year to verify users’ age claiming to be 18 or older. It uses techniques including authentication via running video selfies through an artificial intelligence system. The Meta-owned service is now ready to roll out this program to two key overseas markets: India and Brazil. These countries together have about 400 million monthly active users on Instagram, according to market intelligence platform Sensor Tower, data of which an industry executive shared with ZebethMedia. The social network said in an updated blog post that it plans to roll out this age verification program to the UK and EU before the end of the year. The program allows users to upload a video of themselves, which Instagram runs through an AI system to determine whether they are indeed aged 18 or older. For this option, Instagram has partnered with the UK-based identity startup Yoti. Once users complete taking a video selfie by following the on-screen instructions, Meta shares that with Yoti for verification through its specially trained AI. Both companies say they delete the data afterward. Image Credits: Instagram Users can also verify their age by providing an ID. Instagram has a list of documents it accepts for verification. The social giant also said it is removing Social Vouching as an option to verify age. Social Vouching, one of the experimental ways Instagram verified the age as part of the new program, allowed a user to request their mutual followers, who are aged 18 or above, to vouch for the age. While it didn’t expand on the reason, it is likely that some users were gaming the system by asking their mutual followers aged 18 or above to lie for them. The rollout comes at a time when safety advocates are lambasting Instagram for letting kids under 13 use the platform and not doing enough to stop teens from potentially seeing harmful content. On its part, last year Instagram made it mandatory for everyone to enter their birthdates, but it’s hard to rely only on that factor as users can easily provide false information. Notably, Twitter is rolling out a feature that asks users to enter their birthdates to see sensitive content. Instagram says it uses age data to restrict certain experiences for teens: it makes accounts of users under 16 private by default, blocks DMs from unknown adults and stops advertisers to serve targeted ads based on teens’ interests and activities. Lawmakers across the world are also looking at introducing rules that force platforms to have effective age checks in place. The UK’s Online Safety Bill and the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act look to restrict content that users aged under 18 can access. Their scrutiny was partially prompted after a whistleblower testified last year to reveal that Facebook had prioritized profit over the well-being of users, especially teens.