On 27th September 2017, Alibaba announced to upgrade its strategy on operating systems and unveiled the new brand slogan of AliOS – Make Everything Smart. Alibaba’s new Operating System Division will continue to invest heavily in the Internet of Thing (IoT) area, developing internet operating system at the scope of automobile, IoT terminal, IoT chip and other industrial sectors and integrating the original YunOS business on mobile terminal. 

According to a research report, the number of devices for global internet of things will reach 8.4 billion in 2017, 31% up from 6.4 billion in 2016, and will exceed the global population for the first time. Most of the services of IoT are still for consumption and the services of IoT consumers use most are smart television, digital set-top box and automobile. 

In July 2016, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) launched the world’s first mass-produced internet car and, over the past year, it had been launching diverse types of internet cars equipped with Alibaba’s operating system, including Roewe RX5, MG ZS and Maxus D90. Among them, Roewe RX5 topped the sales chart with an annual sales volume of 230,000. The emerging internet car is becoming a new trend for travelling. 

Hu Xioming, president of AliOS and senior vice president of Alibaba Group, said they will keep exploring the field of automotive operating system and work hand in hand with more partners in the industry chain to jointly promote the transformation towards an intelligent automotive industry. An unintelligent mobile phone has been an antique today and in the future, an unintelligent car will be an antique as well. Automobile is just the beginning of AliOS’s “Make Everything Smart” strategy and an IoT operating system will be defined as one that is completely different from that in the PC and mobile era.