Sportag Offers Rapid Photo Searching and Sharing via Platform Equinix

HONG KONG – February 18, 2019 – Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today announced that Sportag, a photo tagging and sharing portal designed for mega sports events, has deployed in an Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) data center in Hong Kong. By gaining access to multiple cloud service providers (CSP) and diverse ecosystems on Platform Equinix^®, the locally-developed portal has been able to greatly improve its digital asset processing efficiency, allowing marathon runners to get photos in seconds instead of hours. 

Asia-Pacific is home to hundreds of sports events every year, all of which generate large volumes of event photos featuring participants. These participants are always eager to get their photos as soon as possible after finishing a race so that they can share them with others in a timely manner. However, manual sorting resulted in long periods between a race and photo distribution, as well as higher costs for the manpower involved. Sportag realized that there was an imminent need to streamline the photo searching and sharing process.

Through Platform Equinix, Sportag is able to process vast quantities of photos automatically and upload photos onto the portal in a timely manner, significantly enhancing the overall experience of sports event participants.

Highlights/Key Facts

• Sportag is one of the first artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition systems used in sports photography in Hong Kong. Since its launch in 2018, Sportag has been widely adopted by marathons and mega sports events in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Canada, processing and delivering more than 2 million photos to more than 35,000 members. Recent events that have used its solution include the Taipei Marathon in Taiwan, the Streetathon and the Ultra Marathon in Hong Kong.
• Through direct and secure connectivity to multiple CSPs via Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™ (ECX Fabric™), Sportag is able to provide enhanced services for its customers. Photographers can now easily upload photos to the cloud immediately after the event without the need to manually sort and tag; marathon runners or sports event participants can select and download their photos in seconds; event organizers can also save costs by reducing manpower, and deliver a superior customer experience by publishing digital assets for timely marketing and promotional purposes.
• The continued rise in digital assets and the need to process and distribute them illustrates the increasing need for interconnection services among the content and digital media industry. According to the Global Interconnection Index, a market study published by Equinix, Interconnection Bandwidth in the Content & Digital Media industry in Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at a 35% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through to 2021, highlighting the rapid digitization of the field.
• Equinix customers can enjoy close proximity and access to multiple clouds via ECX Fabric to scale their content delivery system infrastructures using on-demand cloud services. In addition, within the Equinix ecosystems, users can connect media assets to Content Delivery Networks (CDN) and establish core CDN services on a hybrid cloud platform for additional services.

Quotes

• Alex Lin, Founder, Sportag

“In order to grow our business, we needed a reliable partner to help us process increasing volumes of photos and speed up our delivery to customers. Thanks to Equinix, we have been able to streamline production workflows, significantly reducing photo searching time and operational costs, and ultimately improving end-user satisfaction. As a homegrown Hong Kong company, we are proud to deliver the market’s first AI facial recognition system designed to bring immense convenience to race participants and organizers.”

• Larry Tam, Managing Director, Equinix Hong Kong

“In the digital era, efficiency, accuracy and quality are the key elements for winning customer loyalty. Equinix has been leading the way in making the cloud an easier and safer place to enhance solutions, offering reliability, safety, control and low latency with an interconnection-first strategy. We will continue to support leading edge companies to capture opportunities and expand capabilities across different regions.”

Additional Resources

• Sportag customer success video [video]
• Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™ Datasheet [website]
• Equinix Hong Kong Data Centers [website]
• Equinix Data Centers in Asia-Pacific [website]

About Equinix

Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) connects the world’s leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most-interconnected data centers. In 52 markets worldwide, Equinix is where companies come together to realize new opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud strategies. Equinix.hk

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix services; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenue from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.