Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA)

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Alibaba Group joins forces with Avalanche on 'Cloudverse' metaverse launchpad
By: Jordan Finneseth | May 4, 2023

Alibaba Group, the Chinese multinational technology company that specializes in e-commerce, retail, internet, and technology, is looking to increase its presence in the metaverse with the release of Cloudverse, a launchpad for metaverse projects on the Avalanche network.

TechCrunch was the first to report on the development, which arose out of a partnership between Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence division of Alibaba Group, and Avalanche, a layer-one blockchain protocol.

Through the partnership, Alibaba’s clients will have access to the Cloudverse launchpad, which is designed to help businesses customize, launch and maintain their own metaverse space on the Avalanche blockchain.

A third partner, MUA DAO, will act as the service layer for the platform and will help implement the integration and customization for metaverses.

“For [Alibaba Cloud], their partners are asking to be a part of web3,” said John Wu, president of Ava Labs. “So we will be dedicating resources to make it easy for them to make their own SDKs on top of ours.”

The metaverse has been a popular topic of conversation in the digital asset space since it first started integrating blockchain technology during the crypto bull market of 2021. In March of that year, the parent company of Facebook rebranded to Meta as part of its bid to lead the way in shaping the future of the metaverse.

While the metaverse remains a popular catchphrase, companies have struggled thus far in figuring out how to harness the concept in their businesses as a way to engage their customers and create additional revenue.

Alibaba and Avalanche are hoping that the ability to launch metaverses quickly and easily will lead to increased engagement from enterprises that don’t have the time or resources to develop these platforms themselves but are interested in the sector.

“You and I can create a metaverse right now,” said Emin Gün Sirer, the founder and CEO of Ava Labs. “Within 15 minutes, the chain is up; within hours the wallet is up and the turnkey is up.” The technology has been made “very easy” and all of the tools are open source, he added.

The companies said that it would take about a month for a metaverse space to be up and running after the initial outreach by an interested firm. To help support the uptake of Cloudverse, builders on the platform will receive support for visuals, metaeconomics, interactive functions, events, continued operations and more, Alibaba and Avalanche said.

Previously, the two companies collaborated to provide infrastructure and tools to help Asia-based Alibaba Cloud users launch validators on the Avalanche network. That original iteration provided plug-and-play and node-as-a-service initiatives to help expand blockchain adoption in Asia, the companies said.

Avalanche sees the collaboration with Alibaba as one of the best ways to increase the adoption of its network and attract new builders and protocols. “For us, it’s a great way to get access to 4 million potential builders, and when they come through [Avalanche], there will be tons of transactions on the chain,” Wu said.

Ava Labs has been one of the more active and collaborative projects in the blockchain industry over the past year.

In January, Amazon Web Services (AWS) partnered with Ava Labs with the goal of scaling blockchain adoption for enterprises, institutions and governments. Ava Labs also became a member of the AWS Partner Network (APN), which enables the firm to “help customers deploy custom offerings on AWS that are connected to more than 100,000 partners across more than 150 countries.”

The firm is also active on the regulatory front, with Ava Labs founder and CEO Emin Gün Sirer being appointed to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Technology Advisory Committee back in March.

“I'm thrilled to have been appointed to the CFTC's Technical Advisory Board,” Sirer tweeted at the time. “I'll do everything I can to move the space forward, inform regulators about the latest developments in crypto, and bring the benefits of blockchains to our financial system.”

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