Moving online now will help businesses emerge stronger on the other side of the crisis

COVID-19 isn't our first encounter with a public health crisis. Back in 2003, we made a timely decision to go all-in on technology during the Sars outbreak, staying on schedule for the launch of our flagship Taobao e-commerce platform.

With the entire workforce quarantined, we took great pains to install Internet and network connections in the homes of our employees to overcome the challenges of a divided workforce, in a time before laptops were ubiquitous.

Many of the challenges we faced then are similar to what we are facing now. It is hard to imagine where we would be without Taobao, and how many "Taobaos" will be lost if businesses today do not take the opportunity to transform digitally.