How Alibaba Cloud Helped Shape iFIT’s AI & China Strategy
For international brands, China represents a vast and compelling consumer market with enormous potential, yet one that operates within its own particular digital environment.
Success, therefore, demands more than translating existing business models. Instead, it requires a re-engineering of technology, marketing and product to fit local platforms and regulations. It is a challenge of deep adaptation.
This was the task facing US-based fitness technology company iFIT. “China is a very different market to the rest of the world,” explains Jason McMurdie, Senior Vice President of Technology at iFIT. “You need to have a very experienced in-country partner that you can work with and who understands the market. So to do that, we partnered with Alibaba.”
Building a digital foundation
For iFIT, the first step was around compliance. This meant navigating China’s rules on data sovereignty and migrating its core infrastructure, including its SAP ERP system, to local Alibaba Cloud servers. It also meant connecting with consumers where they are active: on ‘super-apps’ like Alipay and TaoBao.
Deploying a CRM like Salesforce required a specialised approach. “Salesforce doesn't have any data centres in China,” explains Forrister Ross, Global Account Executive at Alibaba Cloud, “so when users in China accessed the application, it would pull data cross-border, which would fall foul of the cross-border data transfer law.”
The partnership between Alibaba Cloud and Salesforce not only solves both this legal issue but also solves network latency challenges.
The result is a platform co-developed over two years, tailored specifically for Chinese users. “We didn’t build in Marketing Cloud because email is less commonly used for daily communication,” Forrister notes. “Instead, we focused on building in things that are important to China. We seamlessly integrate Salesforce CRM with unique local app ecosystem and Alibaba Cloud technology, which is the Connected Experiences Gateway (CXG).”
What began as a vendor relationship has evolved into something deeper. “They’re being very proactive,” Jason says of the Alibaba Cloud team. “That’s helped us a lot.”.
AI as an engine for adaptation
With the foundation in place, the focus turned to the product itself. iFIT holds a vast library of fitness content – petabytes of video. AI became the tool to unlock this asset for a new audience.
The first task was translation, where Forrister says Alibaba Cloud’s AI model Qwen was able to “match the tone and timbre of the coaches and then automatically translate videos.”
Qwen is now helping reshape this library of content, providing more personalised experiences. “Can we use AI to automatically shorten a two-hour workout to 20 minutes for a user with less time?,” Forrister points out.
Even audio is being adapted: the profile for a user on a phone is different from someone on a “$20,000 treadmill with a super-surround system,” so AI is “augmenting and changing audio depending on the device it’s being played on.”
This ability to rapidly prototype and implement such changes is crucial: in a recent example, Alibaba Cloud was able to deliver a proof of concept just two days after the request.
“What’s really exciting for me is working with iFIT and other customers where we’re able to implement this AI really quickly – in days, not months or years,” Forrister says.
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