Ma’s visit marked the two-year anniversary of Alibaba joining The Olympic Partner (TOP) worldwide sponsorship programme – a historic, long-term strategic partnership with the IOC that is helping to transform the Olympic Games for the digital era.
In his address to the IOC staff, Jack Ma said “Alibaba is very honoured to join with you to move the Olympics to the next stage. We have moved things very fast, and we have started testing a lot of ideas. My view is that we have to bring the Olympic Games anywhere, anytime, to anybody, and we have to connect the fans to each other and let them get involved.. We believe in the future. We believe that if we work together, if we create value for the others, if we can use technology to enable others to have more jobs, then things will be better. Alibaba believes in Double H -- Happiness and Health. It is the future. No matter how rich you are, how poor you are, no matter who you are, you always want to be Happier and Healthier. That is the spirit behind the Olympic Games.”
Through the partnership, Alibaba brings the power of its innovations across e-commerce, cloud services and digital media platforms to help the IOC and the Olympic Movement achieve their vision. This includes creating a more connected, engaging, secure and efficient Olympic Games experience for all the members of the Olympic Family and the millions of fans around the world.
IOC President Thomas Bach said: “Jack is always giving me good advice and leading me in the right direction when it comes to the great potential this digital world is offering for us. For us it’s not a challenge, it’s a huge, huge opportunity how we can even reach further with our message, how we can get access to our fans and also to our not yet fans in a more direct way and in this Alibaba and Jack are key. Welcome to the IOC, welcome to your home, welcome to your family!”
Alibaba’s TOP Partnership, which runs through to 2028, means the company serves as the official “Cloud Services” and “E-Commerce Platform Services” Partner of the IOC. The Alibaba Olympic Games Showcase at PyeongChang 2018 offered fans, media and the Olympic family the opportunity to see first-hand how Alibaba technology will transform future Olympic Games. In December 2018, Alibaba and the IOC announced the launch of the first-ever Olympic store in China on Tmall, one of the world’s largest e-commerce marketplaces while earlier in 2018 the Chinese company’s cloud computing arm – Alibaba Cloud – worked with Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) to launch OBS Cloud, an innovative broadcasting solution that operates entirely in the cloud and supports the extremely demanding content production and delivery workflows of broadcasting the Olympic Games. The Alibaba Group is also a Founding Partner of the Olympic Channel.