Alibaba Business School, in partnership with The Royal Beijing Language and Culture Center, has named the top three finalists for Global Ecommerce Talent (GET) Program in the Philippines.
The Makati-based language center also recently teamed up with iAcademy, the first Philippine educational institution that will implement the Alibaba GET Program.
The competition simultaneously takes place in over a dozen other countries such as the African region, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the Philippines, Colombia, France, Serbia, Russia, and Mexico.
The “GET Global Challenge 2020” event aims to discover solutions that can be used during the pandemic and even after. The challenge wants to identify those innovative digital solutions that pass criteria and will be of help to many people, businesses and institutions as everyone needs to adapt to the new normal.
Applications were opened in April with a deadline of submission set on May 4. Developers and entrepreneurs were challenged to come up with digital solutions for everyone that would promote inclusive development and empowerment for the youth.
Students and universities have been encouraged to join and present their ideas that will hopefully reduce day-to-day struggles, combat the virus, and improve work efficiency and quality of life.
During the competition, the teams were able to take advantage of everything the Alibaba GET Network offered — from individualized 1-on-1 coaching to different resources (case studies, industry reports, etc.) and live-stream sharing and training sessions. More than a hundred teams entered the challenge from over ten countries and regions.
Three teams have been chosen from the roster of participants to represent the Philippines. They will be competing with 52 other teams from 14 different countries.
The three have been selected out of the 12 teams that showed their creativity and initiatives and response to social responsibilities. The three short-listed teams are: Neighbourly, Checkmade (Las Chicas), and Symlify.
- Neighbourly is an e-commerce platform for residential neighborhoods that promotes “bayanihan” by empowering community building and commerce. Due to the pandemic, there has been a rise in community commerce as Filipinos seek a safer way to purchase their needs and earn income. The Neighbourly experience is designed specifically to make buying and selling more convenient for you and your neighbors by solving the challenges faced when doing this through messaging apps and social media platforms.
- CheckMade is a startup that aims to create a fraud-free online marketplace in the Philippines. The e-commerce industry has grown exponentially the past several months due to the pandemic and a common problem now is finding businesses or sellers that are legitimate. With CheckMade, small businesses can further increase their market reach by enhancing their reputation. Beyond fraud, it is CheckMade’s goal to help create a better and more secure eCommerce ecosystem.
- Symlify is a single platform that helps online sellers manage their businesses. Social network selling is now standard but it still has more room for improvement. Symlify is an order management system designed for small business online sellers that depend on social media. It serves as a central location where vendors can manage orders coming in from Facebook, Instagram or Viber. Its SymlifyGo dashboard generates order links that can be shared on different social media network. It is where all orders can be efficiently tracked.
The three teams are proceeding to the World Finals of the Alibaba GET Global Challenge. Each will be given time to present their pitch that includes a 5-minute video plus a 3-minute live Q&A session with the jury. After a series of deliberation, the Alibaba Business School will be naming the top six global winners from different countries on August 29.
The top prize is up to 100,000 RMB which is around $14,500 (P700,000). It also includes the opportunity to connect with potential mentors, employers, and investors.
