Alibaba is pushing into smart home appliances by leveraging the Taobao crowd-funding platform Smart Cloud, Tmall 3C channel, and the Baichuan platform for app developers. The co hopes that 50%+ of total Tmall home appliance sales will come from smart appliances in 2015. The newly formed Alibaba Auto division meanwhile is focused on a seamless eco-system offering of new cars, second-hand cars and auto-related services through strategic partnership with 40 auto/auto parts makers. Ali intends to cover 500 cities with O2O auto services, utilizing some 10,000 4S stores and 20,000 auto service centers currently in its ecosystem.
