Alibaba Group, the world’s largest retail giant, has signed a four-year partnership with the Macau government to turn the gambling mecca into a ‘Smart City.’
Elon Musk will send the first manned mission to Mars.
Not NASA.
There is a shift in power, where there was once the government, we now have billionaire entrepreneurs willing to invest their revenue into the enhancement and survival of the human race.
And it’s not just happening in the West.
Macau, the gambling epicentre of the universe, has inked a deal with the Chinese company that seems to have its fingers in a broad variety of pies ranging from gambling to manufacturing, to make Macau a ‘Smart City’ by 2021.
The Alibaba Group began life as 18 employees squeezed into Jack Ma’s pad in Hangzhou. Today, things look a tad different, with Ma having to upgrade his apartment as his staff levels increased to 9,000 employees, as revenues of $15.7 billion saw the group overtake Walmart, as the largest retailer in the world. Ma didn’t have a problem finding a new apartment with his net worth of $36 billion.
Alibaba and the Macau government has agreed to a four-year deal, that will split the city upgrade into two distinct phases. The first phase, scheduled to end in June 2019, consists of the creation of a cloud computing data centre in Macau, and data mapping of information for the government. The second phase, running July 2019 – June 2021, will then use that data, coupled with Alibaba’s Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Deep Learning systems, to create vast improvements in the cities environment, customs clearance, and financial forecasting.
Also in the pipeline are improvements to the healthcare system, transportation, city governance, and education. Improving tourism is also on the agenda, meaning the gambling mecca is about to get a Tony Stark style upgrade.
I wonder if that means Tom Dwan will get a new hoody?
Macau isn’t the first city to have an upgrade.
In October 2016, the Alibaba Group began work on turning Ma’s hometown of Hangzhou into a Smart City. The results have been remarkable. 21 million people now have access to a single card that allows them to withdraw money from ATMs, hire bikes, access their gym membership, and a dozen other options. The partnership also created an enhanced traffic management system that reduces congestion, improving traffic speed up to 11%.
Alibaba is one of 13 public companies currently working with the Chinese government to use their expertise to turn the country with the largest population in the world, into a Smart Country.
And Elon?
Yeah, he left Mr Trump after realising that backing the coal industry wasn’t particularly conducive to a Smart City.
Mars, it is then.
