SHANGHAI \u2014 Internet giant Alibaba has joined forces with China’s biggest defense company to offer location-based services using a homegrown satellite navigation system that competes with the US GPS network, the firms said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New York-listed Alibaba and China North Industries Corp. (Norinco) have created a 2 billion yuan ($313 million) joint venture to offer services using Chinese satellite navigation system Beidou, Norinco said in a statement on its website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each company has a 50 percent stake in Shanghai-based Qianxun Weizhi network, which was set up on Tuesday, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Norinco, a leader in China’s military trade, is a sprawling state-owned group selling everything from tanks to air defense systems. It is the authorized company for research and applications for the Beidou system, state media said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beidou, which began offering both commercial and public services in late 2012, says on its website it has a network of 35 satellites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its services are centered on the Asia-Pacific region but it is scheduled to provide global coverage by 2020, and it is viewed as a competitor to the global positioning system (GPS) developed by the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This signifies that China’s own Beidou navigation satellite system has taken an important step and revealed a new chapter,” Norinco said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alibaba’s Tmall platform is believed to command more than half the Chinese market for business-to-consumer transactions and its Taobao platform holds more than 90 percent of the consumer-to-consumer market in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Location-based services can enable companies to offer products or applications to people at targeted places through mobile devices, and Alibaba said the venture would allow it to improve its offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Location-based services are an important part of the Internet infrastructure,” an Alibaba spokeswoman said in a statement provided to AFP on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We hope to be able to provide businesses and developers with better location-based services.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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