What's Going On With Alibaba Stock Friday?

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA stock traded lower Friday in line with the broader IShares China Large-Cap ETF FXI index.

The company is intensifying its efforts to expand its presence in the U.S. by introducing new features, including an updated image search, on its cross-border wholesale platform, Alibaba.com. 

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The platform is hosting a "Co-Create" event in Las Vegas, attended by Chief Technology Officer Yang Zhou and Vice-President Andrew Zheng, bringing together business enthusiasts, B2B professionals, and industry experts, SCMP reports.

The Jack Ma-founded company is celebrating "Super September" on its B2B platform with a month-long sale involving sellers of a combined 70 million products.

To attract American users, Alibaba has rolled out new features, like an enhanced image search and intelligent communication tools for speech-to-text conversion as live subtitles. 

In the first half of 2023, the number of active buyers on Alibaba.com surged by 33%, with more than 90% of industries experiencing robust growth in online exports. Additionally, 91% of countries and regions covered witnessed increased traffic on the site.

However, despite Alibaba's overseas success, China's foreign trade faces challenges, with exports declining for the fourth consecutive month in August due to weak external demand and ongoing global supply chain disruptions.

Meanwhile, Alibaba fintech affiliate Ant Group Co launched an artificial intelligence tool for wealth management and insurance services.

The fintech company will leverage its financial large language model to power two applications known as Zhixiaobao, which answers customer questions, and Zhixiaozhu, an assistant for financial professionals.

Ant is also planning to use the large language model for market analysis, investor education, explaining insurance products, and verifying claims.

It also open-sourced its AI-powered coding platform CodeFuse for developers.

Ant has conducted a closed test on Zhixiaobao 2.0 for about six months and will release it after winning regulatory approval.

Price Action: BABA shares traded lower by 0.36% at $89.65 premarket on the last check Friday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.