Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has released a new custom typeface that its partners, sellers and consumers can use free of charge to establish their own brand identities.
The two fonts in the typeface, Alibaba Sans (Latin W1G) and Alibaba PuHuiTi (simplified Chinese), were debuted at the company's annual UCAN design conference in Hangzhou, China, on 27 April.
Alibaba Sans is a custom font that is available for commercial use
The bespoke typeface will be implemented across all of Alibaba's platforms to establish a common visual identity.
Led by its aim to "make it easy to do business anywhere", Alibaba has also made the fonts available for commercial use to all of its partners, merchants and customers, who can download and use them free of charge. The font is designed to be "energetic and young"
The company hopes this will offer digital resources to businesses of all sizes that are struggling to access reliable and inclusive design assets with which to establish and express their brand identities.
"We would like to make this new typeface an inclusive resource for all our partners and customers across the globe, and for free," said Alibaba chief marketing officer Chris Tung.
"True to our group mission, we are taking a concrete step forward to helping small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in the digital economy through the power of design," he added.
The Alibaba Sans font comprises 7,205 Latin letters in 11 different weig...