Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, today announced a collaboration with Dubai Silicon Oasis, an integrated freezone technology park and member of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ), to launch the Web 3.0 Association to better serve customers for exploring new business opportunities and support the growth of the Web 3.0 ecosystem.
The announcement was made during the Alibaba Cloud Day summit in Dubai in the presence of Dr. Juma Al Matrooshi, Director-General of Dubai Silicon Oasis, and Daniel Jiang, General Manager of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. The event was held at the JW Marriott Marquis on 6 March under the theme “Together for a Shared Future” with key industry leaders to discuss business developments to evolve with the next generation of the internet that will bring major innovations and restructure current operational models.
By leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s scalable, high-performance, and secure cloud infrastructure and digital technology, the Web 3.0 Association will provide a framework for industry participants in the Middle East and beyond to support the growth of the evolving Web 3.0 ecosystem and digital economy by enabling more opportunities for businesses and create more user-friendly and immersive experiences.
Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Juma Al Matrooshi said: “As a technology-focused freezone, Dubai Silicon Oasis is keen on supporting the development of technology across its channels, including the world wide web. Web 3.0 is a natural evolution of the internet that we know, incorporating concepts such as decentralization and blockchain. Hence, we are delighted to collaborate with Alibaba Cloud once again, and establish the Web 3.0 Association to support the growth of the Web 3.0 ecosystem.”
Dr. Al Matrooshi added: “This evolution presents a wide range of opportunities to connect users and devices together and share content across platforms. The Web 3.0 Association will bring together developers and experts in the field to better understand Web 3.0’s possibilities and limitations, while also sharing their learnings with industry participants across the globe. The Association’s work is expected to support the growth of the evolving Web 3.0 ecosystem and digital economy, which DSO is committed to empowering in line with it’s status as a knowledge and innovation hub within the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, and in contribution to the ambitious goal of the D33 Economic Agenda.”
Daniel Jiang, General Manager of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. said: “The creation of the Web 3.0 Association alongside Dubai Silicon Oasis will offer significant benefits to our partners as they transition their businesses towards a digital path. Our partnership will help facilitate growth of Web 3.0 ecosystem by supporting developers and enterprises through the process of building their own web 3.0 applications and become proactive to utilise emerging technologies such as the metaverse and blockchain that will future-proof their operations.
“By leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s trusted and world-class security and global compliance capability and strong infrastructure coverage across the globe, we are in a strong position to facilitate the growth of the Web3.0 ecosystem to better serve customers with scalable, highly efficient and secure infrastructure.” Jiang said.
Further announcements were also made at the Alibaba Cloud Day Summit in Dubai. During the event, Alibaba Cloud announced a collaboration with ChainIDE, a cloud-based multichain integrated development environment (IDE) for developers, to help launch the Web 3.0 and Metaverse Lab initiative with an aim to train 10,000 blockchain engineers to empower educational technology and developer ecology in the Middle East. The initiative will nurture participants through a Web 3.0 training camp, Metaverse Lab and Blockchain Teacher Training System.
During the event, Alibaba Cloud also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mysten Labs, a web3 infrastructure company and initial developer of the Sui Layer 1 blockchain to accelerate the adoption of Web 3.0. Under the terms of the MOU agreement, Alibaba Cloud aims to provide archival node services and secure cloud infrastructure for validators as part of Sui Blockchain Testnet to better serve developers and customers for a more user-friendly and immersive experience. The two companies will enhance collaboration to mobilize the industry participants including the builders and communities etc in developing a sustainable Web 3.0 ecosystem and will also explore cooperation opportunities in e-commerce and payments sectors.
As a global leading IaaS and PaaS provider, Alibaba Cloud boasts a network of 86 availability zones in 28 regions across the globe, offering a highly secure, scalable, robust cloud infrastructure to support global customers embracing digital innovation. Alibaba Cloud has been a leading provider of cloud services to local private companies and public institutions in the UAE and the wider Middle East region since 2015.
