Assessing Elements of Storytelling in Chinese e-Entrepreneur Giant Alibaba's Business Information Graphics

Abstract

Alibaba Group is China's largest e-commerce company and leader in e-business infographic publishing. This study attempts to understand how Alibaba's infographics use texts, visual aids, and statistical graphics to facilitate understanding of their contents. A quantitative content analysis of its 460 infographics suggests that while Alibaba's content preference aligns with its mission to education small business owners, the design and forms of its infographics have much room for improvement. To facilitate better storytelling and visual communication, the infographic design needs to make better use of introductory and conclusive texts, to use visual aids that facilitate interdependent storytelling and that serve more functional than decorative purposes, and to better utilize the power of statistical graphics to quickly convey patterns behind numeric values.