The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Alibaba Group on Thursday jointly announced a 12-year partnership through 2028.

Joining The Olympic Partner (TOP) worldwide sponsorship program, Alibaba will become the official "Cloud Services" and "E-Commerce Platform Services" Partner, as well as a founding partner of the "Olympic Channel."

Alibaba is the first company to make a long-term commitment to the IOC through 2028, and the first Chinese company to commit to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

The partnership was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by IOC President Thomas Bach, Alibaba Group Founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma and Alibaba Group Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang.

Thomas Bach said: "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 organization of the Olympic Games through 2028, whilst also supporting the global development of digital opportunities including the Olympic Channel."

"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," said Jack Ma. "We are proud to support Olympic Agenda 2020, using our innovations and technologies to help evolve the Olympic Games for the digital era."

Ma also said he hopes the new deal will help his company in its fight against counterfeiting. Alibaba is seeking to repair its image after being deemed a market for fakes by the US government.

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

The best-in-class 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 is 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.

Leveraging Alibaba's leading digital media technologies and know-how to develop and customize the Olympic Channel for a Chinese audience.

"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.

Tsunekazu Takeda, Chair of the IOC's Marketing Commission, said: "We are delighted to be working in the long term with Alibaba for the benefit of the Olympic Movement. This strategic partnership underlines the global appeal of the Olympic values and opens an exciting new chapter in this digital age."

Alibaba will 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.

(Source: Xinhua)