On July 24, 2019, Salesforce announced via a blog post a strategic partnership with Alibaba. Under the agreement, Alibaba will become the exclusive provider of Salesforce to customers in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Salesforce will also become the exclusive enterprise CRM product suite sold by Alibaba.

The agreement encompasses Salesforce’s CRM platform, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Salesforce Platform for customers in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The agreement notably does not cover Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud. Salesforce’s offerings will run on the Alibaba Cloud service platform.

Salesforce commented that Alibaba’s advanced, secure infrastructure and knowledge of these markets will empower its global customers with a solution that meets local business needs.

China’s CRM market is forecast at about $270 million in 2019, up 28% from the prior year, according to Statista.

The move enables Salesforce to serve its global clients in China directly, rather than through partners. China tech giants Baidu and Tencent offer their own CRM platforms: This week Baidu announced its own CRM platform called Aifanfan (爱番番), while Tencent has invested in CRM platform company Xiaoshouyi (销售易), whose customers include the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (the world’s largest lender by assets), according to a recent article in Caixin.