The NFL is aggressively moving to expand its presence in China, and the league recently deployed Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson to Shanghai to do that. Part of that expansion involves working with Amazon.com rival Alibaba.
Wilson was in Shanghai launching an NFL-branded flag football league. During his time there, Wilson hosted a camp for teenage players, promoted Alibaba’s Alipay (a Paypal and Venmo rival), and met with Alibaba executives at the company’s headquarters. Broadcasting from Alibaba’s offices, he told fans in a video posted to Twitter to expect “big things” in the near future.