Alibaba

Alibaba supports iamtheCODE, a global initiative teaching programming skills to disadvantaged women and girls around the world. The company supports entrepreneurs with disabilities in China by training them to sell online and offering commission discounts on sales made through the Alibaba platform.

The Alibaba Cloud Academy partners with academic institutions to provide free technical skills training to students.

Alibaba follows industry norms by having a security incident response team. Its information security management is internationally certified.

Alibaba demonstrates support for open innovation by belonging to standards organisations, having a dedicated portal for the company’s open source projects and sharing company data with universities for research purposes. The company supports the technology innovation ecosystem through its venture capital fund.

There is an opportunity for Alibaba to support universal and affordable digital accessibility. The company could provide metrics on its contribution to the iamtheCODE initiative and the number of beneficiaries. Alibaba should also report on how the economic value it generates is distributed among its stakeholders.

Alibaba could expand the metrics about the organisation’s digital skills initiatives. It could also consider supporting digital literacy training and school connectivity.

Alibaba should provide more details on how cybersecurity responsibility is handled at the senior level and report on the number of data breaches it has had. Alibaba’s privacy policy could be strengthened by including information about how users can download a copy of their data. In addition, the company could demonstrate its commitment to online safety for children through a high-level pledge.

There is an opportunity for Alibaba to demonstrate commitment to the technology start-up ecosystem through initiatives in addition to its venture capital fund. Alibaba should also demonstrate support for inclusive and ethical innovation by reporting the number of female employees working in technical roles and any steps it is taking to consider ethics in research and development.