China’s delayed Asian Games in Hangzhou gets support from local tech firms including Ant Group and ByteDance
- Alipay sponsored the first digital torch relay of the Asian Games on Thursday, with over 21 million people signing up
- The Hangzhou Asian Games, originally scheduled for September 2022, was postponed to this year due to China’s rigid Covid-19 controls
China’s delayed Asian Games, the multi-sport event scheduled to take place in Hangzhou this September, has received sponsorship support from local tech firms including fintech giant Ant Group, smartphone brand Vivo, and short video platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Ant’s mobile payments app Alipay is the official payment partner and digital life services platform partner of the Hangzhou Asian Games. It sponsored the first digital torch relay of the Asian Games on Thursday, with over 21 million people signing up to become a digital torch bearer by searching for “Asian Games” in the app.
Ant Group is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which also owns the Post.
Douyin, the short video platform owned by ByteDance, said it is partnering with state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) and will live-stream all the action at the games on its platform, according to a WeChat official article posted by the company.
Full replays, along with a multitude of videos about the athletes, match news as well as sports tips will be available on Douyin. The same content will also be available on Jinri Toutiao, the news aggregator and information content platform owned by ByteDance.
The Hangzhou Asian Games, originally scheduled for September 2022, was postponed to this year due to China’s rigid Covid-19 controls. During the 15 competition days, athletes from 45 nations and territories will compete for 483 gold medals from 40 sports including swimming, athletics and basketball.