The news that Alibaba is pouring US$320 billion into developing a "digital hub" in the much-touted Eastern Economic Corridor has not been greeted with universal applause in Thailand. Concerns are rising about the potential negative impacts on small local operators once the Chinese e-commerce giant cements its foothold.
The mutual benefits seem clear to both Thailand and Alibaba, which has already partnered with the Malaysian government on a Digital Free Trade Zone. It is part of Alibaba's plan to beef up its presence in Southeast Asia to reduce concentration risk in China. It will also further entrench Alibaba's lead in regional e-retailing through its Lazada subsidiary.
Thailand, meanwhile, aims to tap Alibaba's expertise to advance digitisation and lift exports of domestic small businesses. Alibaba has started listing Thai farm products on its Tmall platform, and showed off its might by generating orders for tens of thousands of durians within hours. Its Fliggy travel business, meanwhile, will work with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to introduce e-ticketing and online tour guides.
But I'll leave the debate about the staggering power of China's tech behemoths to others. What I want to talk about is the shameful way many of these companies behave toward half the population.
Reports have emerged about recruitment advertisements by Alibaba, the social media conglomerate Tencent and the search engine Baidu, boasting of the "beautiful girls" that work for them.
When Alibaba advertised for a sales manager for Taobao, it said women aged 28-35 were preferred, "with a good personal image and class". Human Rights Watch (HRW) said its recruitment social media account published photos of young female employees and described them as "late night benefits".
When Baidu advertised for a marketing position, it said men were preferred "because of business travel" and other reasons. A Tencent ad featured a male employee saying the presence of beautiful women was one reason he joined the company.
HRW analysed 36,000 advertisements posted since 2013 on corporate and government websites and social media platforms in China, searching for terms related to gender preferences such as "men only" and "suitable for women".
It gets worse. Chainfin.com, a consumer finance firm, hired a female "programmer motivator" to help comfort stressed male employees through chats and massages. Having such a "motivator" on staff is seen as a perk to attract male coders, HRW said.
The objectification of women is a prevailing local attitude that is difficult to change. Wang Jie, the chief executive of Shanbay.com, an app that helps people learn English, reports seeing responses like men saying "If there are more beautiful women, I'll be happier in my job. What's the issue?" A woman said: "As a woman, I don't think this is a problem at all" when he posted about tech companies using "beautiful women" to draw male programmers.
In China, where women have made great strides in the workplace, such biases are rarely discussed openly. In a tech scene that has produced companies that rival Facebook, Google and Amazon in power and wealth, the work culture makes even bro-dominated Silicon Valley look progressive.
Alibaba has just one woman on its 11-member board, while one of Baidu's six directors is female. Tencent has none, compared to three women at Twitter and two at Facebook.
The current legal framework in China, HRW says, isn't up to the job of dealing with sexist ads. The anti-discrimination law is not clear on what constitutes gender discrimination and is not often enforced.
But businesses shouldn't have to be told that they should be more proactive and responsible in this area. International pressure could help. Six of China's 10 biggest tech companies are traded in the US, and they should be encouraged to apply international best practices worldwide.
One outstanding example is GE. The US conglomerate employs uniform standards relating to a host of issues in all of the countries where it does business. If the requirements on gender in a country happen to be lower than its internal standard, it will apply the latter in order to ensure consistency, even though it is not compelled to do so and it may incur higher costs.
At the same time, host countries such as Thailand must make clear to all investors that they must follow requirements prohibiting discriminatory practices. Alibaba and others that pride themselves on being forces of modernity and progress need to move out of the stone age of sexism, and not just on their home turf.
