Alibaba’s DingTalk video conference tool recommended by UNESCO
March 24, 2020 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
DingTalk, the remote office tool developed by Alibaba Group Holding, was among the first batch of 60 distance learning solutions recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Other providers include Zoom, Lark, and Microsoft’s Teams. The Hangzhou-based company said DingTalk has been facilitating online courses in 140,000 schools and 2.9 million classes in China, covering 120 million students in more than 30 regions in the country. Some 3.5 million teachers have become anchors via the app. Two other Chinese companies, Mosoteach and iCourse, also made it to the UNESCO list. UNESCO said these solutions do not carry the organization’s explicit endorsement, but emphasized that they tend to have a wide reach, a strong user-base and proven impact. To stay prepared for the explosive growth, DingTalk has just unveiled its latest 5.0 software version to include new functions like office tools that can be edited by multiple users simultaneously as well as tiered virtual community groups.
Tencent Meeting, a remote learning and conferencing tool developed by Tencent Holdings, said it has been expanding capacity to provide smooth video conferencing services for organizations in civic services, financial, education, and the medical sector since the end of January. In the education realm, Tencent Meeting has been supporting online lectures for leading institutions like Tsinghua University and Wuhan University. It has also extended services to seven countries and regions outside of the Chinese mainland, offering users free online meetings for up to 300 participants, said Zhao Jiannan, General Manager of Tencent Meeting Northeast Asia.
The remote work tool business has been catapulted to the forefront and has much room for growth, said Raymond Wang, Global Partner at consultancy Roland Berger. “Roughly 20% of the office workers in developed economies in Europe and the U.S. are used to distance conferencing, whereas the penetration rate is between 1 % and 2% in China,” he said. “For Chinese technology providers to excel in overseas markets, it’s imperative to understand cultural nuances regarding local needs, habits, and conduct targeted marketing,” he said, as reported by the China Daily.
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