Beijing, China

E-commerce giant Alibaba has launched Beijing Winter Olympics-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Advertisment

Featuring speed skating, aerial freestyle skiing, slopestyle, and figure skating, the virtual badges have a traditional Chinese ink painting style.

According to Alibaba, ''Owners of the NFTs are barred from using the digital collectibles for any commercial purpose.''

Also read | After cryptocurrencies, money laundering via NFTs is next big worry

Advertisment

Taobao and Tmall, Alibaba’s core e-commerce sites in China will sell them in online marketplaces from February 5 to 20.

Available to Alibaba’s 88Vip paid members, the four badges have 8,888 copies each.

Called “digital collectibles,” the offerings are only available to mainland Chinese residents over the age of 14 years.

Advertisment

The buzz around this new market has been buoyed by art collectibles like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, algorithmically generated portraits that can sell for millions of dollars. They have gained celebrity traction, with socialite Paris Hilton and TV host Jimmy Fallon recently showing off their Bored Apes.

Also read | Explainer: What is the hype behind pricey pixels, why people spend fortunes on NFTs or digital art?

Several big companies, from Coca-Cola to Gucci, are testing the temperature with their own NFTs. In the art world, meanwhile, just over $1 in every $20 of revenue at top auction houses last year came from NFTs.

A life-size image of International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach virtually handed an Olympic torch to a similar hologram of the chief executive of tech giant Alibaba, Daniel Zhang, who was more than 1,000 km away from Beijing in Shanghai.

No longer the preserve of sci-fi movies, hologram technology is becoming a real communications option, especially after COVID-19 put the brakes on global travel, driving firms such as China's Alibaba to seek alternatives to in-person meetings beyond video conferences.

"We’re living in a different world," the virtual Bach said of the technology in 2022 compared with the 2008 Summer Games that was also held in Beijing.

The Hangzhou-based firm was fined a record $2.8 billion for antitrust violations and is under scrutiny as regulators step up oversight of the technology industry at a time when the economy is slowing.

(With inputs from agencies)