Alibaba Cloud, a subsidiary of the Chinese company Alibaba Group, recently launched its own NFT solution services for creators and developers to facilitate in NFT marketplaces. However, now the company seems to have backed off with no mention of NFTs on its website. 

With NFTs increasing in popularity despite the declining market, Alibaba Cloud introduced its own NFT solutions to cater to  “web hosting, digital marketing & content delivery” on Wednesday. The announcement was made via Alibaba Cloud’s official Twitter account. 

However, suddenly, the company deleted all the traces of the NFT service from the website and its official account. Although the website is still appearing on google search results, the company behind it hasn’t mentioned its existence at all. 

This means people who weren’t following Alibaba Cloud’s official account might not know the existence or disappearance of NFT solutions that were once launched with great anticipation.

Why did Alibaba Cloud delete its tweets and website mention?

Alibaba Cloud has given many details as to why it deleted the tweets and website mentions. On the official website, there is no mention of an NFT service in the Solutions tab, and if you search NFT on the search bar, nothing comes up. 

The company seemed to have everything planned for the marketplace and even shared 3 NFT market solutions for creators namely, web hosting services, digital marketing, and Global delivery. Now, there seems to be no trace of it on the website. 

Prior to the disappearance, the South China Morning Post owned by Alibaba wrote an article explaining that the NFT solution service was made for the international website to cater to customers living outside China.

After exploring and researching, only one possibility might explain the reason for the NFT solution services’ disappearance. 

China’s NFT and crypto restrictions

China’s NFT and crypto restrictions have become harsher than any other country. As a leading technology-driven country, China is home to many tech giants who have brought a revolution to the Chinese economy. 

Following the launch of blockchain technology, China was one of the few countries to adopt this new technology and further develop itself in it. However, due to a lack of regulation and authority, the Chinese government banned crypto and NFT trading in the country. The digital economy seemed to be sabotaging the overall economy and empowering illegal activities within the country.

Recently, China’s tech giants presented a development plan for “digital collectibles” without crypto trading to the Chinese government in hopes to operate NFTs in the country. Alibaba was also part of that list and is quite involved in this case. 

The sudden disappearance of the NFT solution service might have something to do with these developments. All the press releases and announcements have been deleted or archived by the company, so anyone who wasn’t following the official account might not know its existence.

Final words

Alibaba Cloud still has mentioned the metaverse-based service solutions for customers on its official website, which makes it even more confusing as to why it chose to delete the traces of NFTs. 

Nonetheless, the assumption that the company might have deleted it as a safety measure to avoid any complications with the case in China should be taken with a grain of salt since Alibaba Cloud has yet to explain why it backed off after the successful launch. 

On the other hand, China’s tech giants still await the decision by the Chinese government which is said to be still under review.