Chinese conglomerate Alibaba, which has investments in several Indian companies including Paytm, Zomato and BigBasket, has no issues with the Central Government’s mandate of data localisation for e-commerce companies in India.
Simon Hu, President, Alibaba Cloud, said the company insisted on data localisation anywhere, be it in India or in Singapore. “It is our principle. Alibaba respects data security and privacy,” he said.
He admitted Chinese companies found it difficult to build trust. “But Alibaba is different. Our views are different from other companies,” he said.
“We have set up a data centre. We are also building a data team that will help provide big data and AI services to Indian companies, he said.
Recently, Alibaba-backed Paytm said it would take only six months for data localisation, while other companies had said it would take at least two years for the process to complete.
The author is in Hangzhou at the invitation of the Alibaba Group.