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Alibaba Group launched a special edition of its workplace communication platform DingTalk this week to facilitate large-scale sports events, including the 2022 Asian Games. 

The new mobile and desktop application, called Premium DingTalk for Sports, streamlines organization and communication for major sports competitions, which can involve more than 100,000 participants spread across multiple sites, Alibaba Cloud announced on Wednesday at its annual Apsara Conference in Hangzhou.

Premium DingTalk for Sports features collaboration tools borrowed from its parent app, including remote video conferencing, file-sharing and instantaneous multi-language translation — all supported by Alibaba’s cloud technology.

The platform also offers office automation tools that make it a one-stop-shop for registration, volunteer management, supplier management, and venue operation. 

“Our new DingTalk solution is designed to help users manage and operate large-scale sports events in a more structured manner,” said Selina Yuan, general manager of International Business Unit, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence in a statement. 

Premium DingTalk for Sports will be deployed first at the 2022 Asian Games taking place in Hangzhou next fall. More than 100,000 organizers, volunteers, spectators and athletes are expected to attend the event, the organizer said.

Hangzhou will be the third Chinese city to host the Asian Games, after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.

Alibaba Cloud aims to revolutionize how people experience sports in the digital era, Yuan explained, and a number of other sports solutions to promote the digitalization of sports are being introduced at this year’s Apsara Conference.

Other notable releases include a cloud-based ticketing system that can automatically inform ticket holders and handle refund requests when a game needs to be rescheduled. 

Alibaba Cloud is building on previous experience of innovation in sports. Last year it supported a digital makeover of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. 

Major innovations included a cloud-based broadcasting platform to keep 9,000 hours of content running smoothly at Tokyo 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. 

It also designed a cloud-based digital pin to connect media professionals in a safe manner and an intelligent ear-worn device to monitor athletes’ body temperature and heart rate for heatstroke prevention during the summer games.

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