Alibaba's COCREATE 2025 in London – When artificial intelligence breaks down the last language barrier in global trade

Global business for everyone: This AI turns your startup into a "micro-multinational" company.

On November 14, 2025, the eyes of the European business world will be on London. There, Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant with over $100 billion in annual revenue, will host its prestigious COCREATE conference on European soil for the first time. But what at first glance appears to be just another industry event is, in reality, a strategic move in a global economic war where artificial intelligence and language have become the decisive weapons. Alibaba isn't just coming to impress – Alibaba is coming to finally dismantle the last major obstacle in global trade: the language barrier.

At the heart of this initiative are two groundbreaking technologies: Accio, an AI-native procurement platform that is revolutionizing B2B trade by enabling complex searches in natural language, and Marco MT, a translation tool that eclipses competitors like Google Translate and DeepL. Together, they aim to deliver on the promise of making global trade accessible to everyone and ushering in a new era of "micro-multinationals"—small companies operating effortlessly in the global marketplace.

But at the heart of this global strategy lies a surprising and crucial alliance: cooperation with specialized, local partners. This is where a German industrial hub like Xpert.Digital comes into focus. With its deep roots in key industries and a unique content infrastructure in 23 languages, it is becoming a crucial piece of the puzzle for Alibaba's European ambitions. This text analyzes how the fusion of Chinese AI technology, global market power, and German, multilingual expertise is not only breaking down old trade barriers but also redefining the rules of the game for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and shaping the future of B2B commerce.

Why a German industrial hub with 23 languages ​​suddenly becomes indispensable

Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant with annual sales exceeding $100 billion, is bringing its prestigious COCREATE conference to Europe for the first time. On November 14, 2025, over 3,500 participants from across Europe will gather at the InterContinental Hotel at the O2 Arena in London. What at first glance appears to be just another industry event reveals itself upon closer inspection as a strategic move in a global economic war where language and technology have become the decisive weapons.

The dimensions of this event

COCREATE 2025 is far more than a trade show. It's Alibaba's answer to a fundamental shift in global commerce. After being held in Las Vegas since 2023, attracting over 3,200 attendees, the event is now expanding to Europe. The numbers speak for themselves. More than 25,000 startup applications from 150 countries were submitted for the CoCreate Pitch competition, which offers a total of $400,000 in prize money. Two top winners will each receive $200,000, divided between cash and Alibaba sourcing credits. An additional 20 finalists will each share up to $40,000.

The speaker list reads like a who's who of the international business world. Alongside Kuo Zhang, President of Alibaba.com, judges and speakers include Rio Ferdinand, the former football legend and current investor; Sara Davies, entrepreneur and investor from the BBC show Dragons Den; and Everette Taylor, CEO of the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. This lineup illustrates Alibaba's strategy of not only acquiring European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as customers, but also integrating them into a comprehensive ecosystem that spans from product ideation and procurement to distribution.

Accio as a game changer in B2B commerce

At the heart of COCREATE 2025 is the presentation of Accio, an AI-powered B2B procurement platform launched in November 2024, which bills itself as the world's first AI-native search engine for B2B sourcing. The numbers behind Accio are impressive and reveal the scale of what Alibaba has built. The platform was trained on over 200 million industry-specific parameters, catalogs millions of suppliers worldwide, and covers more than 7,600 product categories. As early as January 2025, just two months after its launch, Accio had already gained over 500,000 active users from small and medium-sized enterprises. By May 2025, this number had grown to over one million.

The technological foundation is Alibaba's proprietary language model, Qwen, which was trained with over 18 trillion tokens. This is complemented by the integration of other AI models such as DeepSeek and GPT-4o. The architecture is based on natural language processing, allowing users to formulate complex queries in natural language instead of relying on keywords. For example, a German SME could ask: "Find me a supplier in Vietnam who can produce sustainable, organic T-shirts with a delivery time of three weeks and minimum order quantities of less than 500 pieces." The AI ​​would then search the entire network of over one million verified suppliers and deliver relevant results within seconds.

The economic impact is measurable. The Accio Inspiration feature led to a 30 percent increase in the conversion rate from search to quote request. Payment conversion rose by 52 percent. During the peak sales season of November and December 2024, over 50,000 small and medium-sized businesses worldwide used Accio to plan their inventory for Black Friday and Christmas. The Net Promoter Score is over 50, indicating exceptionally high customer satisfaction. On December 13, 2024, Accio was chosen as Product of the Day on Product Hunt, a platform for new technology products.

Accio's three core systems

The Accio ecosystem consists of three integrated components that together cover a complete procurement cycle. Accio Search functions as an AI-powered B2B search engine with natural language processing. Unlike traditional search engines that rely on keyword matching, Accio Search understands the context and intent behind search queries. The system can perform multimodal searches, combining text and image information. A user can upload a photo of a product, and the AI ​​will find similar products or potential suppliers.

Accio Page functions like a dynamic Wikipedia for B2B products. Each product page contains verified information, detailed supplier profiles, and real-time retail data analytics. This solves a fundamental problem in B2B commerce: information overload coupled with uncertainty about data quality. Instead of spending hours researching suppliers and comparing product specifications, users get all the relevant information on a single, trusted page.

Launched in August 2025, Accio Agent marks the evolution from a tool to an autonomous AI system. This agent can automate up to 70 percent of the traditional procurement workflow. The user inputs a product concept, and the system generates a complete development plan with market insights, regulatory guidelines, and design specifications. Upon user approval, Accio Agent takes over: real-time supplier vetting, bulk requests for proposals, comparative analysis, and the delivery of a finalized, production-ready roadmap. A single click sends requests directly to pre-screened global sellers on Alibaba.com.

The economic logic behind this architecture is clear. Alibaba is democratizing access to global supply chains. What was once reserved for large corporations with their own procurement departments is now accessible to sole proprietors and small teams. A two-person design studio can now sell products in 20 countries by leveraging AI-generated market insights—an effort that previously would have required extensive resources and months of work. Alibaba calls this new category of companies micro-multinationals.

The language barrier as the last hurdle in global trade

For all technological sophistication, one fundamental challenge remains: language. According to research data, 76 percent of online shoppers prefer websites in their native language. Forty percent won't buy anything at all if content isn't available in their language. In the B2B sector, these figures are even more critical, as it involves complex product specifications, legal agreements, and long-term business relationships. Language barriers lead to misunderstandings, incorrect orders, delayed deliveries, and, in the worst-case scenario, the loss of business partners.

Alibaba recognized this challenge and in October 2024 introduced an updated AI translation tool called Marco MT. The tool supports 15 languages: Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, French, English, Dutch, Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, and Polish. Unlike traditional translation tools, Marco MT is based on Large Language Models and uses contextual cues such as industry jargon and cultural differences to produce better translations. The technological foundation is Alibaba's AI application Qwen, enhanced by MOE techniques and extensive e-commerce data.

According to assessments by the FLORES benchmarking framework, Marco MT outperforms established competitors like Google Translate, DeepL, and ChatGPT. Its BLEU score is 51.60 for translations into English and 47.70 for general usage. While these figures may sound technical, they have direct economic implications. Kaifu Zhang, Vice President of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group, reports that Marco MT can increase orders by up to 30 percent. In its first year alone, the tool gained half a million merchants as users.

Marco MT serves two main use cases. In cross-border e-commerce, it offers automated translation of product lists, customer service messages, and search terms. For general users, document translation is the primary focus. A German mechanical engineering company can have technical specifications translated directly into Chinese, while a French fashion retailer can adapt its product descriptions for the Arabic market. The tool continuously learns from feedback and improves through a self-learning cycle, so that minimal human intervention is required over time.

The strategic importance of multilingualism in the B2B sector

The importance of multilingual solutions in the B2B sector cannot be overstated. Studies show that 65 percent of consumers prefer to read content in their own language. In the B2B context, where purchasing decisions are more complex and involve larger sums of money, this percentage is even higher. Google data confirms that 68 percent of B2B buyers initiate their purchasing process via search engines. Those who are not present in the buyer's language at these critical moments risk losing potential customers to competitors.

The challenges facing internationally operating companies are manifold. According to Common Sense Advisory, manual translation costs can reach 8 to 12 percent of revenue. Multilingual content updates often take longer than 45 days. A Harvard Business Review survey shows that only 29 percent of companies achieve synergy between multilingual content and SEO strategies. The remaining 71 percent struggle with fragmented approaches, inconsistent quality, and outdated content, leading to declining organic rankings.

The costs of a lack of localization are dramatic. A representative of a building materials company reported that after investing $300,000 in a 12-language website, organic Google traffic dropped by 58 percent within six months because the content wasn't being kept up to date. Inquiries were halved. Such scenarios are not isolated incidents but typical of companies that treat multilingualism as a one-off task rather than an ongoing process.

B2B marketplaces play a transformative role in breaking down language barriers. By using AI-powered real-time translations, multilingual chat and messaging systems, and localized user experiences, these platforms are democratizing global trade, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes. Advanced natural language processing algorithms and machine learning models enable accurate, context-aware translations of product descriptions, catalogs, and buyer-seller communication.

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Xpert.Digital as a strategic ally in the multilingual world of topics

In this context, the importance of platforms like Xpert.Digital for Alibaba's Accio ecosystem becomes clear. Founded by Konrad Wolfenstein (“I was invited by Accio to Alibaba's COCREATE 2025 in London”), Xpert.Digital has established itself as a leading industry hub across various sectors, including mechanical engineering, photovoltaics, logistics, intralogistics, and smart city factories. The platform offers over 130,000 technical articles in 23 languages ​​and more than 400 PDF documents containing valuable data and facts. With over 117,000 pages indexed by Google, Xpert.Digital boasts a substantial digital presence.

Xpert.Digital's strength lies in its hybrid positioning. The platform functions simultaneously as an industry hub, blog, and brand ambassador. It combines the advantages of communication and sales channels on a single platform. Through cooperation with partner portals and the ability to publish articles on Google News and a press distribution list with approximately 8,000 journalists and readers, the reach and visibility of the content are maximized. This represents a significant factor in external sales and marketing, which Wolfenstein refers to as SMarketing.

For Alibaba's Accio, the collaboration with Xpert.Digital is strategically valuable for several reasons. First, Xpert.Digital brings in-depth industry knowledge in sectors that are central to B2B commerce. Mechanical engineering, logistics, and photovoltaics are areas in which German and European companies are global market leaders or at least hold a strong position. Second, Xpert.Digital has established channels to decision-makers in precisely those small and medium-sized enterprises that Alibaba aims to reach with Accio. Third, and perhaps most importantly, Xpert.Digital's 23-language infrastructure perfectly complements Alibaba's multilingual ambitions.

Xpert.Digital's 23 languages ​​encompass not only major European languages ​​like German, English, French, Spanish, and Italian, but also key markets in Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. This broad coverage allows content to be not just translated, but localized—a crucial distinction. Localization means adapting to the cultural norms, values, and sensitivities of the target market. A German article about Industry 4.0 solutions cannot simply be translated word for word into Chinese. It must be adapted to the Chinese context, taking into account local regulations, business practices, and technological standards.

Specific synergies between Accio and Xpert.Digital

The synergy potential between Accio and Xpert.Digital manifests itself on several levels. At the thematic level, Xpert.Digital can act as a multiplier for Accio-related content. Articles on successful procurement strategies with Accio, case studies of German SMEs that have found new suppliers through the platform, or analyses of trends in B2B e-commerce can be published in 23 languages ​​and distributed via established channels. This creates awareness and trust in markets that Alibaba would otherwise struggle to reach.

On a technical level, Xpert.Digital's SEO expertise and multilingual optimization strategies can help Accio content rank higher in local search results. A French entrepreneur looking for sustainable sourcing solutions might find a French-optimized article about Accio on Xpert.Digital, introducing the platform and motivating him to register. This approach, via trusted local content hubs, is often more effective than direct advertising.

At the business development level, Xpert.Digital can serve as a bridge between European companies and the Alibaba ecosystem. Konrad Wolfenstein and his team have many years of experience advising companies on digital transformation processes. They can act as trusted advisors, explaining the advantages of Accio to European SMEs, supporting them during the onboarding phase, and sharing best practices. This kind of localized support is particularly valuable for German companies, which are often skeptical of American or Chinese platforms.

The economic climate favors such cooperation. Alibaba is investing heavily in its international expansion. The Alibaba International Digital Commerce unit recorded a 22 percent year-over-year revenue increase in the fourth quarter of 2024. Although the unit is still operating at a loss, this decreased from RMB 4.1 billion in the previous year to RMB 3.6 billion. The company is on track to achieve total profitability in fiscal year 2026. CEO Eddie Wu emphasized that strong momentum in cross-border trade, a diversified market presence, and localized supply chain models are making the B2B platforms more resilient and competitive.

The macroeconomic perspective

From a macroeconomic perspective, COCREATE 2025 and the Accio platform are situated within the context of several global trends. The first is the increasing digitalization of B2B commerce. The global B2B e-commerce market is estimated to reach a volume of US$35.3 trillion by 2027, with an average annual growth rate of 17.8 percent between 2023 and 2027. This is not a linear continuation of previous trends, but rather a fundamental shift in business practices. A growing number of companies expect digital, seamless, and intelligent procurement processes.

The second trend is the increasing importance of AI in everyday business. Alibaba's research shows that 63 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises worldwide want to use AI tools for cross-border trade. This demand is being met by offerings like Accio Agent, which are not just reactive tools, but proactive partners in the business process. The integration of AI into procurement systems, inventory management, customer service, and global logistics is becoming a standard requirement.

The third trend is the shift in global supply chains. Following the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions, companies are seeking more resilient, diversified supply chain structures. One-sided dependence on individual regions or suppliers is recognized as a risk. Platforms like Accio, which offer access to millions of suppliers in over 200 countries, enable this diversification. A German manufacturer can search for suppliers not only in China, but also in Vietnam, India, Turkey, or Mexico, and compare them within minutes.

The fourth trend is the renaissance of entrepreneurship, particularly among younger generations. The over 20,000 applications for the CoCreate Pitch competition, including a disproportionately high number of women and Generation Z founders, demonstrate that a new generation of entrepreneurs is ready to tackle global markets. These founders are digital natives, expect intuitive tools, and are prepared to adopt new technologies. For them, an AI-powered procurement platform is not a futuristic vision, but a fundamental requirement.

The geopolitical dimension cannot be ignored. Alibaba's expansion into Europe comes at a time when trade relations between China and the West are complex. The European Union has introduced mechanisms for screening foreign direct investment, particularly in strategic sectors such as AI, robotics, and semiconductors. At the same time, Europe remains an attractive market for Chinese companies. COCREATE 2025 in London can be understood as a soft power initiative: Alibaba is positioning itself not as a threatening foreign player, but as an enabler for European entrepreneurs and SMEs.

COCREATE 2025: The turning point for European export opportunities

For European companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), COCREATE 2025 and the Accio platform offer significant opportunities. Access to global supply chains is being democratized, language barriers are being reduced through AI translations, and complex procurement processes are being automated. Companies that use these tools intelligently can increase their competitiveness, tap into new markets, and reduce costs. Strategic partnerships with platforms like Xpert.Digital can facilitate entry by providing localized support, trusted information, and industry expertise.

For Xpert.Digital, the collaboration with Alibaba's Accio opens up new business opportunities. The platform can position itself as Accio's preferred European content partner, offer specialized services for the localization of B2B content, and act as an intermediary between Chinese technology and European business culture. Its 23-language infrastructure is the key differentiator. In a world where language barriers are increasingly being overcome by AI, the ability to produce high-quality, culturally appropriate content in multiple languages ​​is becoming a decisive competitive advantage.

For Alibaba, COCREATE 2025 is a key milestone in its European expansion strategy. The event serves not only to acquire new customers but also to build trust and establish itself as a trusted partner for European businesses. The presentation by Accio and Marco MT demonstrates technological leadership, while the pitch competition and high-profile speakers underscore Alibaba's commitment to supporting entrepreneurship. Success will be measured in the medium term by how many European companies actively utilize Alibaba's B2B ecosystem and how deeply it is integrated into their business processes.

The longer-term vision extends beyond mere transaction platforms. Alibaba positions Accio as an AI-native infrastructure for the global commerce of the future. In this vision, AI agents will routinely handle complex business processes, from product development and supplier sourcing to contract negotiation. Human actors will focus on strategic decision-making, creativity, and relationship management, while repetitive, data-intensive tasks will be automated. Language will no longer be perceived as a barrier, as real-time translations and cultural adjustments will occur seamlessly in the background.

This vision is ambitious, but not unrealistic. The technological foundations already exist. Market acceptance is growing rapidly, as Accio's user numbers demonstrate. The regulatory framework is evolving, even if it is not yet fully resolved. The crucial question is not whether this transformation will happen, but how quickly and who the winners and losers will be.

Companies that ignore this development risk being left behind. Companies that blindly rely on individual platforms risk strategic dependencies. Companies that intelligently collaborate with multiple partners, leverage local expertise, and maintain their own digital sovereignty will be the most successful. In this context, the partnership between global technology platforms like Alibaba and local content and knowledge partners like Xpert.Digital is a promising model.

COCREATE 2025, taking place on November 14th in London, will be more than just an industry event. It will be a turning point, where the future of global B2B commerce becomes tangible. For the 3,500 attendees, the 30 pitch finalists, and the millions of businesses that can potentially benefit from Accio, it's an invitation to be part of this transformation. For Xpert.Digital, it's confirmation that investing in a multilingual, AI-powered content infrastructure was not only visionary but also a business necessity. And for Alibaba, it's the next step in delivering on its promise: to make it easy to do business anywhere.

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