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  • I've come to Alibaba's global headquarters, it's about a one-hour train ride from Shanghai, let's go inside and explore.

  • There's an unmanned vehicle coming right at me.

  • Here at the Chinese tech giant's campus in Hangzhou, China.

  • I'm exploring Alibaba's corporate culture to see first-hand how it's embedding technology into just about everything you can imagine.

  • There are a lot of vending machines here.

  • Alibaba is one of China's tech success stories.

  • In 2014, its listing on the New York Stock Exchange became the biggest Initial Public Offering in history.

  • Today, it has a market capitalization of more than $400 billion and around 100,000 staff globally.

  • It's about 12.30 in the afternoon so it's the peak of lunch time.

  • And Alibaba's founder, Jack Ma, has become a known-figure around the world.

  • Alibaba started as an e-commerce platform 20 years ago, but now it has more than 30 business units that span from fintech to film.

  • It boasts six campuses around Hangzhou, with many more offices across China and around the world, including Silicon Valley.

  • I've come to its main headquarters, called XiXi Campus, home to Alibaba's corporate office, as well as its major e-commerce brands Tmall, Taobao, and AliExpress.

  • 20,000 people work here.

  • Next to the campus is a shopping mall, where Alibaba is piloting various retail technologies.

  • It even recently opened its own hotel, where it's testing out robot butlers and facial recognition door access.

  • To get into the main campus, employees have the option of using facial recognition.

  • It's really quite interesting how seamless this facial recognition technology is for employees, especially if you have your hands full, well it could definitely come in handy.

  • All around campus, you have bikes like this that are available for employees to get around from point A to Point B.

  • There are no locks, they're just ready and available for use here on campus.

  • I'm gonna take one for a ride.

  • Employees here on campus can order groceries on an app and then have it delivered to their building via this unmanned vehicle.

  • This is all part of Alibaba's plans to develop its artificial intelligence technologies, which will be rolled out in its self-driving cars.

  • Last year, it announced unmanned vehicle trials, joining the likes of fellow Chinese conglomerates Baidu and Tencent.

  • Employee orientation here at Alibaba is a solid two weeks.

  • During that two weeks, new hires will do different activities, different challenges and really get to know the company.

  • And for newbies who stay loyal to the company, a gift awaits.

  • This wall behind me shows what employees get when they hit a certain mark for staying with the company.

  • So if you've been at Alibaba for one year, you get a pin.

  • At three years, you get a pendant, and then at five years, you get a ring.

  • And now it's time for lunch.

  • You've got a lot of food options.

  • You have dumplings, fried dumplings, casserole dishes, duck soup with noodles, Cantonese-style roasted meat, a lot of different styles of Chinese food and I do see an Italian station as well.

  • The camera actually recognizes every dish that I picked, and then automatically assigns a price, gives me a total, and then you pay.

  • Employees here get a set amount of money per week that they can use toward the cafeteria and that pretty much should cover lunch and dinner comfortably.

  • The cafeteria opens once again at 9 pm for snacks.

  • So if you are working late, you're covered, you've got yogurt, muffins, things like that.

  • After lunch, I tour some of the areas where Alibaba's e-commerce platforms are based.

  • The company claims it has 674 million active annual users visiting its retail marketplaces in China.

  • Alibaba's total retail sales are expected to surpass $1 trillion this year.

  • But while sales are growing, smaller retailers are chipping away at its market dominance.

  • In 2016, it made up nearly 70% of e-commerce space in China.

  • This year, it'll make up just over half.

  • Many places on campus have different timelines like this which are a homage to the history of different business units of Alibaba.

  • Employees here have access to the gym where you see some Alibaba branding.

  • You also see the T-Mall logo looking quite athletic.

  • This is Alibaba's giftshop where you have a lot of different mascots for every different business unit.

  • Some of Alibaba's businesses are famous for their mascots.

  • There's this cat for Tmall, this hippo for Freshippo, its new retail grocery store, and a pig for Fliggy, which is Alibaba's online travel platform.

  • I just arrived at the bookstore where you have a lot of books, a lot of leadership books, books about Jack Ma.

  • It's also a coffee shop as well.

  • Jack Ma is a big fan of Chinese martial arts so all of the conference rooms here on campus are named after different places in books.

  • Every May 10th, that's 510 has become what's known as Ali Day, and it's now known as employee appreciation day.

  • 102 couples are invited to come on Ali Day and celebrate their wedding and Jack Ma imparts knowledge and wisdom as part of this day.

  • Now why, 102?

  • Well, because Jack Ma once said that this company needs to last at least 102 years because that would mean it spanned three generations.

  • I'm ending my tour at Alibaba's museum.

  • Inside the museum, you will see a history of the company and then you will also fast forward to today and learn about some of the new business units that have been created.

  • Just outside of the Alibaba museum, you have this massive wall with many different icons, Alibaba says the wall is meant to recognize and salute game changers who have made a positive impact on the world.

  • They are kind of subtle, kind of hidden, so I'm going to see if we can find who's on here.

  • I found Steve Jobs right here.

  • Mark Zuckerberg.

  • Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google, which is now called Alphabet.

  • Warren Buffett.

  • And perhaps unsurprisingly, I find Jack Ma.

  • Hey guys, it's Uptin. Thanks for watching.

  • Check out more of our Alibaba videos and let us know in the comments what you thought of the campus here in Hangzhou, China.

  • While you're at it, subscribe to our channel and we'll see you next time.

I've come to Alibaba's global headquarters, it's about a one-hour train ride from Shanghai, let's go inside and explore.

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