Chinese technology and e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced that it aims to change the way television broadcasters, fans and organisers experience the Olympic Games through the integration of its technology. 

The company is now three years into its 12-year Olympic sponsorship the firm is set to provide its technological strength to broadcasters, thus allowing them to take advantage of its cloud based system at this year’s Tokyo Olympics. 

Furthermore, organisers are also set to benefit from Alibaba’s experience and expertise in the 2024 Paris Games and 2028 LA Games.

Alibaba’s marketing chief Chris Tung, stated: “We are not just putting the rings together with our logo. We also want to leverage our technology to help transform and upgrade games. That’s always what we have in mind as a sponsor.”

“We expect that Paris and L.A. will be a complete explosion of what has been tested and what has been discussed in previous games.”

As well as this, Alibaba, who has previously worked alongside both the International Olympic Committee and FIFA, is also moving to improve sporting events beyond the funding process, with Tung putting a focus on the ‘absolute necessity’ of cybersecurity following the hacking of Olympic sports and anti-doping organizations.

Alibaba’s work is also set to provide improvements for attending fans who will notice major changes at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing as ticketing and trading operations become increasingly digitised.

Tung, who predicted that souvenir lines will be replaced by immediate delivery to hotels through the use of Alibaba’s online platforms, added: “Fans and athletes will experience completely different Olympics with a lot of cloud technology support.” 

The two-week Winter Youth Olympic Games will see Alibaba work with its subsidiary, the IOC Olympic Television Service, to generate increased social media content and provide a faster and more efficient service for Tokyo-based national networks through the use of Alibaba’s cloud servers.