Jack Ma Step Into Major Olympics Sponsor

DAVOS - Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba will be one of the lead sponsors of the Olympics through 2028, the company said Thursday, in what, by some estimates, could be a $600 million deal.

The announcement was made at the World Economic Forum in Davos at a signing ceremony with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, Alibaba founder, Jack Ma and company CEO, Daniel Zhang.

The Chinese online shopping will be part of The Olympic Partner (TOP) program, as well as the Game’s official “Cloud Services” and “E-Commerce Platform Services” partner, and one of the founding partners of the Olympic Channel.

The new digital television service hopes to pull in younger fans who have not been as eager as previous generations to embrace the broadcast television model of previous Games.

"This is a new, game-changing immersive experience that we want to create together through digital technology," said Alibaba chief marketing officer, Chris Tung.

The announcement comes both as Alibaba extends its e-commerce reach to global markets and at a time when the next three Olympic Games will be held in Asia: the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea; the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo; and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

With the deal, Alibaba becomes the International Olympic Committee's main e-commerce platform. It will provide cloud computing services for the Games and will help customize the Olympic Channel for a Chinese audience.

The International Olympic Committee is embracing the digital revolution, said IOC director of marketing Timo Lumme.

"We need strong digital partners and there is no stronger partner in this than Alibaba. The vision here is to build a truly global program, so if you’re sitting in San Francisco and you want to buy Team USA apparel, you’ll use the Alibaba platform,” he said.

Olympic sponsorship comes in multiple tiers of sponsorship with the Olympics Partners (TOP) program being the highest. Alibaba joins such global brands as Coca-Cola, McDonald, Visa, Samsung, Panasonic and General Electric.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, TOP sponsorships were estimated to cost as much as $200 million, according to Forbes.

Lumme and Tung would say what Alibaba would pay for the sponsorship, but the Financial Times estimated it could be as much as $600 million.

Only one Chinese company has been a TOP sponsor previously, computer-maker Lenovo from 2005 to 2008, during the build up to China's first Olympics in Beijing in 2008.

"They were only for four years and in a specific and narrow category. This is a much broader and longer agreement," said Lumme.