Alibaba is craving a slice of the world's largest car market

Billionaire Jack Ma is taking the challenge to Apple Inc. and Google by pushing Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. into the car business, joining the global battle to control the automobile dashboard according to Tian Ying, Craig Trudell, and Jie Ma on Bloomberg.com

The Chinese e-commerce company’s YunOS operating system, which connects phones, tablets and smart watches, is now on its way into car dashboards, touch screens and advanced rear-view mirrors. Alibaba showcased its OS’Car technology in an SAIC Motor Corp. Roewe RX5 SUV model where starting price 148,800 yuan ($22,000). Moreover, that allows drivers to book a parking space, order a coffee and pay for it all using the company’s Alipay system.

“We believe in the future that 80 percent of the car’s functionality won’t be related to transportation,” Ma, who is Alibaba’s chairman, said at the event introducing the vehicle in Hangzhou, China. “The car will become a kind of robot you communicate with on a daily basis.”

Alibaba is asserting its claim on a segment of the global car industry that researcher IHS Automotive projects will increase  by about 19 percent per year to become a $4.2 billion market by 2021. While Google's Android Auto and Apple's CarPlay frameworks are empowering drivers in a great part of whatever remains of the world to stretch out network from their telephone to their auto screens, they're running into hardened rivalry in China, the world's biggest auto market.

Track Record

Alibaba and SAIC have been building their positions in the associated auto space for a considerable length of time. Mama, 51, obtained China's most-well known portable mapping administration in July 2014, when Alibaba purchased AutoNavi Holdings Ltd. in an arrangement esteeming the organization at about $1.5 billion.

SAIC, China's biggest automaker, began a 1 billion yuan reserve with Alibaba in March 2015 to build up an associated auto. The state-possessed organization has joint endeavors with China's top-offering worldwide carmakers Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co.

“Alibaba has wide-ranging Internet-based services and YunOS could be a starting point for their cooperation, especially due to the fact that lots of Google services are blocked in China,” said Michael Liu, an analyst at IHS Automotive in Shanghai. “Foreign brands are not likely to use the Alibaba system at least in the next several years.”

Sales of the OS’Car-enabled Roewe RX5 began Wednesday. Alibaba slid 0.4 percent in $78.64 in U.S. trading, while SAIC Motor was unchanged at 21.14 yuan in Shanghai.

Alliance Talks

Alibaba is in chats with a few automakers about framing cooperations to utilize YunOS, as indicated by Wang Jian, director of Alibaba's innovation guiding board of trustees. The organization likewise is taking a shot at confirming the framework for vehicles in the U.S., he said.

“This is a car run on the Internet; it’s not a car that has some Internet capabilities,” he said in an interview. “iPhone made the first generation of phone that was part of the Internet, just like the PC. This car is the first generation of cars that are becoming a new member of the Internet.”

Analyst IHS Automotive has figure Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto will get to be driving stages for auto availability, except for China. Administrative obstructions including Internet oversight directions likely will fight off rivalry for Alibaba and Baidu Inc's. CarLife.

Delegates for Apple in Beijing and Google in Singapore didn't promptly return calls and messages looking for input.

CarPlay, Android

Apple’s CarPlay will be used by more than 40 auto brands to integrate the iPhone into the car’s telematics system for navigation, music playback and phone calls. Google’s Android Auto is available in models from at least 17 car brands, including Chevrolet, Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz, and is adding the traffic program Waze to its navigation offerings.

Ma, wearing a dark tee-shirt and chinos, jumped into a white SAIC Roewe RX5 with his partner at SAIC Motor. Prior, he expressed gratitude toward SAIC Chairman Chen Hong for offering the SUV at a modest cost.

“The pricing is shockingly low,” he said to the audience. “SAIC faces a lot of pressure to roll out the car at such prices.”