Alibaba vows digital transformation of Olympics

Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma on Saturday pledged to help transform the Olympic Games for the digital era as China's e-commerce giant unveiled its vision for future Olympics.

Ma said Alibaba would work with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to develop technology for the Games.

He also noted that the spirit of fair competition could further spread if the digital transformation of the sports event was realised.

Ma made the comments in a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach at the opening ceremony of the Alibaba pavilion at Gangneung Olympic Park, Yonhap news agency reported.

Ma said Alibaba would showcase its vision for future Olympic Games through its technology at the PyeongChang Games and said his group would continue the technological innovation for Tokyo and Beijing.

The Japanese and Chinese capitals would host the Summer Olympics in 2020 and the Winter Olympics in 2022, respectively.

In 2017, Alibaba partnered with the IOC to help transform the Games for the digital era. Alibaba said it would serve as official "Cloud Services" and "E-Commerce Platform Services" partner.

On Saturday, Alibaba launched "The Olympic Games on the Cloud," at its pavilion, offering an interactive experience to visitors on its vision for future Games.

Alibaba also highlighted its "sports brain" a suite of cloud-based and artificial-intelligence-powered solutions that Alibaba said would drive the digital transformation of the Olympics to benefit fans, spectators, athletes, venues and organisers.

--IANS

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