Alibaba Group signs cloud deal with Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has jointly announced a long-term partnership through 2028. Joining The Olympic Partner (TOP) worldwide sponsorship programme, Alibaba will become the official “cloud services” and “e-commerce platform services” partner, as well as a Founding Partner of the Olympic Channel. The partnership was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, attended by IOC President Thomas Bach; Alibaba Group Founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma and Alibaba Group Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang.

“In this new digital world, Alibaba is uniquely positioned to help the IOC achieve a variety of key objectives outlined in Olympic Agenda 2020, while positively shaping the future of the Olympic Movement. This is a ground-breaking, innovative alliance, and will help drive efficiencies in the organisation of the Olympic Games through 2028, whilst also supporting the global development of digital opportunities including the Olympic Channel,” said Thomas Bach, President, IOC.

Through this partnership, Alibaba’s contributions to the Olympic Movement will include:

• to provide cloud computing infrastructure and cloud services to help the Olympic Games operate more efficiently, effectively and securely, including supporting big data analytics requirements;
• the creation of a global e-commerce platform for Olympic stakeholders to engage and connect with fans seeking official Olympic licensed products manufactured by the Olympic parties’ official licensees, and selected sports products, on a worldwide basis
• leverage its digital media technologies and know-how to develop and customize the Olympic Channel for a Chinese audience.

“Alibaba’s partnership with the IOC is built on a foundation of shared values and a common vision for connecting the world and enriching people’s lives. We are proud to support Olympic Agenda 2020, using our innovations and technologies to help evolve the Olympic Games for the digital era,” said Jack Ma, Founder and Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group.

The partnership will further require Alibaba to support the organizers of each edition of the Olympic Games, and the Olympic Movement around the world. These rights will include advertising and promotional use of Olympic marks and imagery from the Olympic Games as well as marks from the National Olympic Committees.

“Alibaba is proud to empower the International Olympic Committee in a game-changing digital transformation, while moving another step closer toward our goal to serve 2 billion consumers,” said Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer, Alibaba Group.

“We will leverage our experience in serving a young user base to help connect more young people to the Olympic Movement, helping to strengthen our brand through this historic partnership,” Zhang added. Alibaba’s global activation rights will include the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and Olympic Winter Games in 2024, 2026 and 2028 in cities yet to be selected by the IOC.