Cloud giant Alibaba Group has been announced as the provider of cloud services for the Olympics. Alibaba Group’s cloud division, known as
Alibaba Cloud (or Aliyun) will be in charge of providing cloud services to the Olympics in a sponsorship deal that lasts until 2028, a period that covers the next three Olympic Games: South Korea (2018), Japan (2020), and China (2022).
With headquarters in Hangzhou, China, Alibaba Cloud was established in 2009 and has global operations including facilities in the Middle East, Europe, Australia and Japan through which the company offers scalable cloud computing and data management platforms. The company has a customer base of around 2.3 million.
Alibaba Group will sit alongside companies like Coca Cola and McDonald’s as key Olympics sponsors. The financial aspects of the deal have not been announced, but it is thought to be costing Alibaba Group in the region of $600 million. The group will also provide “E-Commerce Platform Services” for the Olympics providing payment services for retailers selling Olympics merchandise via the internet.
“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,” explained Alibaba Group’s Founder and Executive Chairman, Jack Ma in a press release posted on the Olympic committee’s website. “We are proud to support Olympic Agenda 2020, using our innovations and technologies to help evolve the Olympic Games for the digital era.”
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