China's Alibaba, IOC to build 'Olympic cloud' for young fans

Alibaba Group Founder and Executive Chairman, China's Jack Ma (L) poses with International Olympic Comittee (IOC) president Thomas Bach as they exchange gifts during the announcement of a long-term partnership of Alibaba as worldwide sponsor on the sideline of the Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Jan 19, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

HANGZHOU - Heads of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met in Hangzhou to discuss ways of using cloud services to engage young fans around the globe.

Alibaba signed a deal with the IOC earlier this year to become its partner for cloud computing and e-commerce through to 2028. Alibaba is China's largest e-commerce company, operating the country's most popular online shopping site taobao.com.

Alibaba Group's founder and chairman Jack Ma told visiting IOC President Thomas Bach Friday that Alibaba would use its internet technologies to lower the operation cost of the IOC and help it attract more young people to watch sports games on the mobile phone.

"Connecting the Games with the internet to lure young people, that is what our technology can do," he said.

Bach said the IOC and Alibaba had a shared vision for a better health and well-being for humankind.

United, the two can make this dream come true and change the world through the combination of sports and technology, he added.