(Yicai Global) May 20 -- Alibaba Group Holdings plans to invest CNY10 billion (USD1.41 billion) this year to strengthen its artificial intelligence and Internet of Things ecosystem focused around its smart speaker, Tmall Genie.

The investment is aimed at expanding the AIoT ecosystem and boosting the Tmall Genie user experience by integrating more content and services from Alibaba’s diverse ecosystem, ranging from entertainment to healthcare, education and online shopping, the Hangzhou-based company said today.

Tmall Genie will also develop AIoT technologies together with Alibaba Cloud and Alibaba DAMO Academy to enable more natural voice and visual interactions between Tmall Genie’s smart products and users.

Under the initiative, mini-apps on Alipay can be integrated with Tmall Genie from July 1. Consumers can also watch livestreaming of vendors’ sales on Taobao via Tmall Genie’s screen.

In addition, the investment will see more leading AIoT technologies developed in-house, including IoT operating systems, edge computing, and visual and voice AI such as its award-winning Natural Language Processing technology. Tmall Genie will also share its latest AIoT tech with partners to co-develop smart products.

According to market intelligence firm IDC, Tmall Genie was the best-selling smart speaker in China for three years from 2017 to 2019. In the first quarter of 2020, according to both IDC and Euromonitor, Tmall Genie ranked No. 1 in China in terms of shipping volume, with a market share accounting for over 35 percent.

Editor: Peter Thomas