A picture shows the front desk at Alibaba Group's Xixi base in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province on March 14, 2014. (Xinhua)
HANGZHOU, east China, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- "Make sports prettier and sexier" said China's e-commerce giant Alibaba when it announced on Wednesday that it will set up Alibaba Sports Group, aiming to take a bigger share in the lucrative sports industry of China.
The group did not elaborate how they are going to reach the goal but the latest move of launching the Sports Group enunciated its ambition far beyond soccer.
The e-commerce titan invested 1.2 billion yuan (about 192 million U.S. dollars) to own 50 percent stake of Guangzhou Evergrande, China's most successful soccer club and former Asian Champions League winner. Alibaba also had business cooperation with German champions Bayern Munich, Spanish giants Real Madrid and NBA star Kobe Bryant.
Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma once said providing health and happiness will be Alibaba's two main priorities in its next 10 years' development. And sports, Alibaba believes, can achieve both.
With the latest campaign, Alibaba said it hopes to bring "digital and economic" thinking to China's already booming sports industry, reshape the whole of the industry and make consumers enjoy much more comfortable and convenient sports services.
"Internet has become a new impetus for sports industry's development and Alibaba Sports Group will strive to provide a web portal for the industry. Hopefully it will upgrade the whole industry and bring more values," said Zhang Yong, CEO of Alibaba.
On back of 10 years' development and especially the successful hosting of the 2008 Beijing Games, China's sports industry has taken shape and grown on a fast lane.
Promoting fitness has also become one of the country's national strategies, with the Chinese government announcing plans last year to develop the country's sports industry and raise the sector's annual output to 5 trillion yuan (813.87 billion U.S. dollars) by 2025.
As Beijing was awarded the hosting right of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in July, local sports industry is expected to become an even bigger cake.
Alibaba said it will be engaged in all aspects of the sports industry, including sports events operations, home entertainment, media, business marketing, and ticketing.
Before Alibaba's march into sports industry, the e-commerce group is better known as China's largest Internet retailer.
Its retail sites Taobao and Tmall.com rang up more than 9 billion U.S. dollars during the country's biggest online shopping holiday the Singles' Day on Nov. 11 last year, smashing 2013's figure to set a record for a single day of sales.
Singles Day was invented by Chinese college students in the 1990s as an anti-Valentine's Day when people could buy something for themselves. It was set for Nov. 11 because of the date's four "ones."
But Alibaba Group turned it into a day of online shopping for all with bargain deals. Other Chinese online retailers also have followed suit.
