Paris, Aug.1, 2024 - Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), visited the grand opening of "Alibaba Wonder Avenue" on the Champs-Élysées on July 27. He praised Alibaba's cloud based AI technology to support Paris 2024.
Alibaba plays an essential role when it comes to supporting technology during the Olympic Games, greatly increasing the efficiency and sustainability of Olympic Games operations. Our partnership also extends beyond the Olympic Games, with Alibaba playing a defining role in our Olympic AI Agenda, helping us harness the great potential of AI in a responsible way. All these examples highlight how Alibaba is the perfect partner when it comes to shaping our digital future.
"Alibaba Wonder Avenue" is a futuristic e-commerce experience pavilion designed by Alibaba Group on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. It will be open to visitors during Paris 2024.
Alibaba Group Chairman Joe Tsai said，Alibaba AI-powered cloud technology is supporting the comprehensive digital transformation of the Olympic Games, from its own Olympic Games operations to broadcasting services to power demand optimization to historical archival restoration and preservation.
The "Alibaba Wonder Avenue" on the Champs-Élysées is located at the eastern end of the boulevard in Paris. It consists of four "time capsules" and has a total length of 88 meters. This eye-catching installation on the fashionable street has attracted numerous visitors who eagerly enter to experience it.
With the help of a smart assistant in "Alibaba Wonder Avenue," visitors can choose their favorite sports in the first three "time capsules" to create personalized products, such as perfumes and beauty items, and set up a parallel universe worldview.
"Alibaba Wonder Avenue" also invited four young Chinese artists to incorporate traditional Chinese elements such as blue and white porcelain and paper-cutting into the parallel digital world, adding a touch of oriental charm to the Champs-Élysées. These unique cultural experiences undoubtedly open a window for Parisians and global tourists to understand Chinese culture.
In the final "time capsule," visitors' digital avatars wear clothing designed by the smart assistants and walk the runway in the parallel universe alongside real-world visitors, creating memorable experiences.
President Bach mentioned that he is very much looking forward to seeing Alibaba's advanced Cloud Technology being more widely applied in various aspects of the Olympic Games, including the competition events, broadcasting, and operations.
The smart assistant in "Alibaba Wonder Avenue" is powered by Alibaba Cloud's proprietary large language model (LLM) Qwen, which features "multi-modal," "multi-lingual," and "conversational" capabilities, allowing visitors to experience the potential lifestyle brought by AI-powered Cloud Technology and e-commerce in advance.
Since Alibaba Group's TOP partnership started in 2017, Alibaba has been the official "Cloud Services" and "E-Commerce Platform Services" Partner of the IOC，and "Alibaba Wonder Avenue" is a comprehensive manifestation of these efforts. E-commerce platforms of Alibaba's overseas operations, such as AliExpress and Alibaba.com, will also hold events here.
At Paris 2024, cloud broadcasting will officially surpass satellite broadcasting to become the primary method of delivering Olympic Games events to billions of viewers around the world. Paris 2024 is expected to feature 11,000 hours of live event footage distributed globally via Alibaba Cloud. This will mark another significant technological advancement since satellite television broadcasting began with Tokyo 1964.
According to OBS, OBS Live Cloud will become the main method for remotely distributing live broadcast signals for Paris 2024. Currently, two-thirds of the pre-booked remote services are based on cloud computing. The Olympic Broadcasting Cloud will rely on Alibaba Cloud's global public cloud infrastructure to support the transmission of live signals of the Olympic Games from Paris to over 200 countries and regions, reaching billions of viewers.
In response to the IOC's "green" initiative, Alibaba Cloud's data-driven sustainability solution- "Energy Expert" solution has been applied to help "Alibaba Wonder Avenue" to optimize the energy consumption and minimize carbon emission.
