Photo credit: Alibaba Group
Alibaba.com recently announced basketball legend-turned-entrepreneur Tony Parker as a global ambassador for its Olympic Games Paris 2024 campaign alongside two other sporting stars.
In other news, the B2B e-commerce platform also unveiled an award celebrating excellence among suppliers from countries including India, Singapore and Thailand.
Alibaba.com Taps NBA All-Star Tony Parker as Face of Olympic Games Paris 2024 Campaign
Alibaba.com announced Tony Parker as a Global Ambassador for its “Same Player, New Game” creative campaign for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The Olympic Games brings together over 200 countries in more than 300 events. Just as the Olympic Games reaches a global audience, Alibaba.com serves a similar role when it comes to connecting suppliers and buyers around the world.
“I’m a regular buyer on Alibaba.com and have seen first-hand the huge value that can be created by connecting with suppliers and efficiently sourcing products through its innovative digital platform,” Parker said in a statement.
Parker, a four-time winner of the NBA, is also a two-time Olympian who reached the quarterfinals of Men’s Basketball with France at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
In the campaign, Tony will be joined by Simona Galik Moore, a former Women’s Tennis Association professional, and mountain biker Elias Schwärzler.
Like Parker, both athletes have gone on to achieve success outside of sports.
In 2020, Galik Moore launched a professional pickleball brand driving interest in one of the most exciting new sports. Meanwhile, Schwärzler is the founder and owner of a specialist mountain biking clothing brand and mountain biking academy.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to put a spotlight on the business opportunities available to former professional sportspeople, and how platforms such as Alibaba.com can help turn their entrepreneurial ambitions into reality,” said Liz Wang, Global Head of Marketing at Alibaba.com.
Top B2B Suppliers to be Recognized with Alibaba.com Award
Alibaba.com just launched its inaugural Key E-commerce Leader (KEL) Award, honoring outstanding e-commerce suppliers in South and Southeast Asia with the chance to visit the platform’s Hangzhou headquarters.
The award is open to owners, key personnel and managers of companies using Alibaba.com in seven countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. To be eligible, contestants’ companies must have at least a two-star rating and have been active on the platform for six months or more.
“By spotlighting the success stories of the contestants, we aspire to motivate countless other SMEs engaged in global trade to reach new heights of success on the international stage,” Roger Luo, Head of South and Southeast Asia at Alibaba.com, said in a statement.
Entrants from each country will compete in national rounds between August and October, with the top 10 from each market heading to the grand final in November.
Along the way, contestants will have the chance to access training sessions and exclusive benefits such as enhanced product showcase slots and keyword advertising bonuses. The top three finalists will also receive a sponsored trip to the platform’s Hangzhou headquarters.
Alibaba Partners with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on Joint Lab
This week, Alibaba and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced plans to establish a laboratory focused on research related to generative artificial intelligence and big data.
Representatives from the two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday outlining their agreement to develop the lab over the next three years.
“Through this collaboration, we aim to accelerate development and applications of scientific research findings across different business use cases and jointly cultivate young talents to drive rapid technological changes,” Wu Zeming, CTO of Alibaba Group, said in a statement.
The lab is the latest in a series of more than 10 joint projects between HKUST and Alibaba dating back to 2018, including efforts to nurture local talent in the data analytics, cloud computing and AI sectors.
“The new joint lab will help drive innovative applications in AI and big data through the sharing of research resources, cultivating future-ready talents,” noted HKUST Vice President (Research & Development) Tim Cheng.
Alibaba Resale Platform Xianyu Moves Beyond Bargains to Power Young Users’ Side Hustles
Need a dog walker? Looking for a part-time gig? For enterprising netizens in China, online flea market Xianyu is the place to go.
Its side job marketplace, launched earlier in the month, enables users to offer services across eight categories and hundreds of sub-categories, covering everything from pet massages to language tutoring.
Learn more about Xianyu, which just celebrated its 10th birthday
Alibaba AI Tool Creates Picture Books for Children with Autism
Alibaba recently introduced an artificial intelligence-powered tool to create picture books for autistic children, building a pathway for them to express their feelings and impressions of the world through art.
Since launching online in June, more than 50,000 people have used the feature, which generates audio-enhanced artbooks from a prompt fed into Alibaba’s Qwen family of large language models (LLMs).
IOC Deploys Alibaba Cloud’s Energy Expert at Paris 2024 Venues to Optimize Power Consumption
Paris 2024 kicks off on July 26 and will host athletes and visitors across 35 locations around the French capital city, in addition to thousands more during the Paralympics that follow.
To minimize power wastage and guide planning for future Olympics, the Energy Expert platform will analyze energy consumption and create venue-specific energy-use forecasts and recommendations.
