Alibaba’s sports arm invests $100m into rugby in China and sets ambitious targets for growth
Alibaba will invest $100m (£82m) into Chinese rugby over the next 10 years as part of a joint initiative with World Rugby to grow the game in the world's most populous country.
Alisports, the sporting arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba, says it wants to bring 1m new players into the " great Olympic team sport" within the next five years.
According to World Rugby's most recent statistics, just 58,000 people currently play the game in China — not including the 21,307 estimated to play in Hong Kong.
Yet Alisports believes it can encourage mass participation in the sport through its investment which will aid efforts to set up programmes in 10,000 schools and universities, recruit and train 30,000 coaches and establish the country's first professional leagues for men and women.
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The firm will also capitalise on Alibaba's vast database of hundreds of millions of users on its digital platforms to raise rugby's profile amongst consumers in the People's Republic.
"Rugby is a great Olympic team sport with strong values, which is why we are so excited about its undoubted potential in China," explained Zhang Dazhong, chief executive of Alisports.
One new player secured already: Chinese president Xi Jinping receives an All Blacks shirt from New Zealand prime minister John Key (Source: Getty)
"We have a great partner in World Rugby and together we will work tirelessly to promote the development of rugby in China with a goal of inspiring 1m new players in five years."
"With a the support of World Rugby and a strong strategic plan, we believe that rugby in China will take off as an attractive, inclusive mass-participation sport of sportsmanship and character."
The creation of Sunwolves, Asia's first Super Rugby team who play in Japan and Singapore, as well as the three Asian stops on the Sevens World Series has helped raise the profile of the sport on the continent.
China is reported to have ambitions to host the Rugby World Cup, which will go to Asia for the first time in 2019 when Japan host.
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China's national rugby team in 1998 – expect facilities to improve thanks to Alisports' investment (Source: Getty)
"World Rugby's strategic mission is to grow the global rugby family," said World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper.
"China is central to that mission and we are delighted to be announcing further details of our ground-breaking plans…Driven by a common vision, ambitious but attainable goals and an unprecedented investment programme, we are confident that we can build a strong and sustainable platform from which to ensure China is in the best-possible position to become a major force on the international stage with strong men's and women's sevens and 15s teams, sustainable leagues, model development and participation programmes and real major event hosting potential."
Alisports has also announced partnerships with the governing bodies of amateur boxing, basketball, the Fifa Club World Cup and the NFL while earlier this year plunged $150m into the International eSports Federation.
The business was launched by parent company Alibaba last September after the Chinese government stepped back from over-regulation of the sports market in a bid to create a new sports economy worth 5trn yuan ($760bn) by 2025.
In 2014 Alibaba founder Jack Ma paid $190m for one half of leading Chinese football team Guangzhou Evergrande.