Alibaba used shoppers’ data to invent a spicy Snickers bar

Boxes of candy sit on display for sale at a Dollar Tree Inc. store in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Friday, Aug. 24, 2018. Dollar Tree Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on August 30. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg

Brands spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year trying to figure out what consumers want. Now Alibaba is offering to help by vacuuming data up from the legions of people shopping, searching and sharing on its various platforms and providing it to companies eager to create products that will resonate with Chinese consumers. 

In recent months, Alibaba has helped Mars Inc create a candy bar and given Unilever NV valuable data for a new line of pollution-fighting cosmetics; then the e-commerce giant advised both companies how to market the products. It’s all part of executive chairman Jack Ma’s “New Manufacturing” strategy, which he hopes will help define the future of the Chinese economy and cement Alibaba’s place in it.