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.
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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.
Even though many Chinese tech companies have taken belt-tightening measures, including a reduction in advertising budgets, to reduce costs in the face of economic headwinds, many are expected to support the event in order to boost their global profile.
Besides Alipay, other Asian e-wallets are taking part in the virtual relay campaign as major partners of Alipay+, Ant’s cross-border payments platform. These include Dana from Indonesia, GCash from the Philippines as well as Kakao Pay from South Korea. Alipay+ will support the Games with its newly added cross-border payment services for travellers to China.
Esports will make its Asian Games debut as a medal sport in Hangzhou, and it has attracted several computer and smartphone vendors as official suppliers.
China’s top PC maker Lenovo, the only Chinese company that sponsored the 2008 Beijing Olympics worldwide, announced in May it was becoming the official supplier of PCs and IT services for the Games. Chinese smartphone maker Vivo announced on Thursday that it will provide its iQOO series as the exclusive supplier of smartphones used in the esports events.
Meanwhile, Tencent Holdings, China’s social media and video gaming giant, has seen three of its video game titles – League of Legends, Honor of Kings, and Peacekeeper Elite – selected for use in esports competitions at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The Shenzhen-based tech giant last January became a strategic partner of the Olympic Council of Asia, organiser of the Asian Games, while Steven Ma Xiaoyi, senior vice-president of Tencent, vowed to support the preparation and facilitation of esports at the Hangzhou Asian Games, as well as the development of the esports industry in Asia.
Before the postponement was announced last May, the Hangzhou Asian Games had already drawn interest from a number of Chinese tech companies, including state-owned telecoms network operators China Mobile and China Telecom, as well as a few Hangzhou-based companies.
Hikvision, China’s surveillance camera giant, signed up as an official sponsor of the Games last January. The company vowed to help create an “intelligent Asian Games” by providing smart services in multiple fields including security inspection and traffic dispatching for the event.
Geely, which sells cars under the brands Emgrand, Englon, Geely, Gleagle and Volvo, signed an agreement with organisers to become the first official partner of the Hangzhou Asian Games as early as 2019.
