China: Alibaba (e-commerce) creates a subsidiary dedicated to sport, Alibaba Sports Group

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, the Chinese conglomerate specialising in e-commerce, announced the creation of a subsidiary dedicated to sport, Alibaba Sports Group, in collaboration with Yunfeng Capital, an investment fund owned by Alibaba, and the Sina Corporation, the owner of the Chinese micro-blogging site Sina Weibo, on 08/09/2015.

Alibaba Sports Group, which will be majority-owned by Alibaba, will rely on online sales platforms and the group's technological resources to develop and propose different activities such as organising sports events, sports copyrights, ticket sales and the creation of dedicated sports media. The launch of this subsidiary coincides with the e-commerce group formalising partnerships with Real Madrid CF (Liga BBVA) and FC Bayern Munich (Bundesliga) to open online shops on the BtoC platform Tmall.com in July 2015.

"Alibaba Sports Group aims to transform the Chinese sports industry through the use of Internet-based technologies to bring greater and better products and services to consumers, sports participants and sports fans alike," announced the group…