Alibaba Cloud Partners with HTC to Advance Virtual Reality Development with Cloud Computing Solutions

Beijing, August 9, 2016 – Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, today announced strategic partnership with HTC Corporation (‘HTC'), the pioneer in innovative smart technologies. Both companies will join hands to explore high scalable and price-competitive virtual reality ("VR") solutions for customers worldwide.

Leveraging the advanced cloud computing technology of Alibaba Cloud, the companies will focus on developing breakthrough innovative solutions to tackle bandwidth allocation, data transmission and data processing needs in areas such as VR video production and VR broadcasting. The partnership will also bring together industry developers to build a VR cloud ecosystem, and extend ‘Viveport', HTC's VR app store to Alibaba Cloud's cloud computing platform.

"Cloud computing has continuously broken the boundaries of what we thought possible, accelerating the rate of innovation. The partnership between Alibaba Cloud and HTC will bring two of the world's most disruptive technologies together to bring more value to businesses looking to leverage VR and cloud. This partnership will accelerate the development of VR technology in China and encourage widespread, global adoption." said Ge JIN, Business Architect Director at Alibaba Cloud.

"We are excited to partner with Alibaba Cloud, as we believe it will be a landmark collaboration between VR and cloud computing industries. By leveraging computing expertise and the developer ecosystem built on Alibaba Cloud, HTC Vive will provide more reliable, stable services to VR solution developers with better access to China market," said Alvin Wang Graylin, China Regional President of Vive, HTC.

Cloud computing and VR technology complement each other on commercial applications. With the algorithm capacity and infrastructure provided by cloud computing technology, the ultimate experience of VR can be greatly enhanced by increasing definition, minimizing system crashes and conserving bandwidth. On top of that, the development of VR technology requires powerful and flexible infrastructure support from the backend to supply visually rich and interactive contents to the audiences, in which cloud computing technology can improve the efficiency and lower operation costs.

Alibaba Cloud has successfully helped a VR team from Zhejiang University to render a three-minute 360-degree 3D VR video in only 3 days. The required computing capacity for the video was 100,000 processor cores and is the equivalent to non-stop processing by a 12-core high performance server for more than 8,000 hours.

About Alibaba Cloud

Established in September 2009, Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba Group's cloud computing arm, develops highly scalable platforms for cloud computing and data management. It provides a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to support participants of Alibaba Group's online and mobile commerce ecosystem, including sellers and other third-party customers and businesses. Alibaba Cloud is a business within Alibaba Group.

About HTC

HTC Corporation aims to bring brilliance to life. As a global innovator in smart mobile devices and technology, HTC has produced award-winning products and industry firsts since its inception in 1997, including the critically acclaimed HTC One and HTC Desire lines of smartphones. The pursuit of brilliance is at the heart of everything we do, inspiring best-in-class design and game-changing mobile and virtual reality experiences for consumers around the world. HTC is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE: 2498). www.htc.com

About Vive Virtual Reality System

Vive is a first-of-its-kind virtual reality system developed in partnership by HTC and Valve. Designed from the ground up for room-scale VR, Vive allows true-to-life interactions and experiences thanks to an adjustable headset displaying stunning graphics, two wireless controllers with HD haptic feedback and 360˚ absolute motion tracking. For a convenient and safe experience, Vive incorporates essential functionality from your phone and features a front facing camera that blends physical elements into the virtual world. Working in concert, this system immerses you visually, physically and emotionally in the virtual world. For more information on Vive, please visit www.vive.com.