The 2024 Paris Olympics concluded on 11 August. During the event, we saw many Chinese wonders from the athletic prowess of its sporting team to the technological support from Aliyun, who broadcast the games. However, it was not the only wonder the Chinese e-commerce and tech giant brought to Paris.
Alibaba, a worldwide partner to both the Olympics and Paralympics this year, brought a “future e-commerce” shopping experience to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the street known for its glamorous shopping areas. Aptly named Alibaba Wonder Avenue, the venue was opened on 27 July by the President of IOC, Thomas Bach.
The Avenue is an indoor space 88 metres in length and 8 metres across and built with opaque materials. Visitors will form shadow play when the lighting inside comes on. Inside it is divided into four “capsules”. In the first one, “Sign Up”, guided by Alibaba’s Smart Assistant, visitors create their own digital avatars for a futuristic shopping experience. In the second capsule “Make Up”, you can co-create your personalised beauty and fragrance products with the Smart Assistant. The third section “Dress Up” will allow your avatar to enter parallel universes with outfits recommended by the Smart Assistant. The final capsule includes “parallel universes” created by four Chinese artists, in the themes of Porcelain, Frontier Land, Paper Cutting and Organic, designed by Yiran, Yulong Huang, Fenwan Chen and Yaqi Zou.
With AR cosmetics try-ons, AI-powered personal shoppers and VR avatars, Wonder Avenue showcases popular, fun and practical uses of its Smart Assistant, with an artistic edge to create an immersive experience. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, the topic “Champs-Élysées Alibaba Wonder Avenue” gained 54.92 million views while “Bach attends the AI future shopping experience in Paris” amassed over 100 million views. With the in-depth partnership between the Olympic Games and Alibaba, we have seen both the current practical use of the broadcasting tech and an artistic representation of the smart interactive tech for the future.
