China's Alibaba seeks sporting gold

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is looking to turn its hundreds of millions of users into sportsmen as it seeks to cash in on the country's growing sporting market, an executive said. The comments by Zhang Dazhong, chief executive of its Alisports unit, come as Chinese football clubs rank second only to English in spending during the winter transfer window and President Xi Jinping harbours dreams of winning a World Cup, and with the country set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Alibaba, which o