Alibaba out to improve Olympics with tech

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The Olympic Games may be ancient but that doesn’t mean the tech associated with them has to be. As a sponsor of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba unveiled a set of cloud and artificial intelligence experiences at its Alibaba Olympic Showcase in Gangneung Olympic Park on Saturday.

Tailored to sports fans, venues and athletes, the showcase is reported to be an interactive experience that includes travel guidance, facial recognition and content generation.

Alibaba Showcase at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, February 10, 2018 /VCG Photo

City Brain, a cloud-based system, has captured attention for its smart collection of data. For every Olympics host country, cost overrun is a major concern, with one of the most expensive parts being the ability to build up local data and IT service systems from scratch. City Brain is touted to be able to do this in a more cost-effective manner.

The system is currently being used by six cities in China and is being set up in Malaysia to help the government make better decisions on traffic flow and emergency response.

Alibaba's cloud-based system, City Brain /Photo from leiphone.com

Other systems like Smart Pass focus on the travel experience for visitors. Using facial recognition, Smart Pass can recommend travel routes, keep track of one’s favorite athlete’s schedule and offer the quickest way out of a venue.

Visitors experiencing the Smart Pass system /VCG Photo

“It’s not just parking or food,” says Alibaba Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tung. “A lot of people take videos and photos at concerts and sporting events, but that ruins the experience of watching the show. But what if you could choose what angle and clip you wanted and then access a professionally done clip?”

IOC President Thomas Bach and Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma tour the Alibaba Showcase at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic. /VCG Photo

The partnership with Alibaba will allow the Games to become more sustainable and popular, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said at the showcase.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma said the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022 would be when this cloud dream would be fully realized, with Tokyo 2020 being where the fruits of the partnership would start to emerge.

The global technology company joined the Olympic Partner worldwide sponsorship program in January 2017 and is one of the few Olympics sponsors signed with the International Olympic Committee until 2028.