Hello Industry Friends, here is the very latest news and insights from China. 📰 Headlines: Star athletes propose PE improvements, WTT heads back to Xinxiang, two sessions eyes digital collectibles and tourism merger, F1 Esports China wins Silver Dove award, full steam ahead for Asian Games, China’s podcast obsession, and all the latest esports news.
🗞️ Top Industry News Star Athletes Propose Improvements to Physical Education At the ongoing Two Sessions - an annual event led by Xi Jinping which often delivers major policy announcements - policy advisers and legislators stated they want greater efforts in physical education and the promotion of school sports to bolster China’s sports mission from the bottom up. Star athletes, past and present, are helping the country's sports ambitions by making their voices heard at China's biggest annual political assembly. Athletes include Yao Ming and Zhang Yufei. Read more on China Daily (English) and Tencent (Chinese) 💡 Mailman Take: China’s ‘double reduction’ policy set out in 2021 clamped down on after-school and weekend classes in favour of sports and fitness activities. The next step is to see more investment and focus during school hours on physical exercise. This presents opportunities for sports organisations to support, as we’ve already seen with the NHL’s ball hockey program being implemented in some local government and school systems. WTT Heads Back to Xinxiang for Champions Event World Table Tennis (WTT), the commercial arm of the International Table Tennis Federation, will return to Xinxiang next month to host its third WTT Champions event of 2023. Following the success of the WTT Cup Finals held in Xinxiang last October, the city will once again welcome top players from around the world between April 9 and 15. Read more on SportBusiness (English) and Chinanews.com (Chinese)
Two Sessions Sparks Proposal to Merge Digital Collectibles and Tourism Yan Meirong, deputy to the National People’s Congress, proposed to issue a plan for the integration of digital collections and tourism. Integrating into areas of tourism and museums would be of great significance to the nation, as it could lift up the tourism industry, fuel the city’s creative economy and pass down traditional culture to China’s youth, according to Meirong. China News Network reported that data shows the annual growth rate of China’s digital collection market is 150% and is estimated to reach a market value of $4.3bn by 2026. Read more on DAO (English) and Chinanews.com (Chinese) F1 Esports China Championship Wins Silver Dove Award The award is Shanghai’s highest honour for media organisations targeting foreign readership and audiences, which is granted on a biennial basis. The F1 esports China Championship was selected amongst 500 entries, achieving second. Read more on The Paper (Chinese) Chinese Athletes Make Final Push Ahead of Asian Games With six months to go, China's athletes across a wide range of sports from table tennis to break dancing are seizing every second in their preparations amid hopes of shining at the quadrennial Games. For China's all-conquering table tennis squad, anything but repeating their haul of five titles at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, will be considered a failure. Read more on Xinhua (English) and Xinhua (Chinese) How is Starbucks Reacting to China’s Podcast Obsession? The coffee brand kicked off its first podcast episode on 1 March, with two experienced baristas onboard to discuss “how does coffee become coffee?” to resonate with China’s ongoing audio content wave. Debuting on Starbucks China’s WeChat official account, the 41-minute-long program features the coffee chain’s history, the ever-rising nationwide coffee trend, mysterious coffee stories, and so much more. Read more on DAO (English) and NetEase (Chinese)
🤔 Opinion State of the Nation: Meet the New Wave of China's Post-Pandemic Travellers As summer approaches and China’s consumers get ready to release their pent-up travel demand, there is a whole new post-pandemic consumer to prepare for, writes Michael Lin, senior business director at Mailman in this latest State of the Nation. Read more on The Drum (English) What Do China’s One Billion Plus Short Video App Users Mean For Luxury And Ecommerce? According to Chinese market research firm iiMedia, the livestream e-commerce industry reached a value of $210bn in 2022, a 19 percent year-on-year growth. It is expected to reach $310bn in 2025. Taobao’s livestream channel has attracted over 50bn viewers since its establishment in 2016. Popular short video apps Douyin and Kuaishou, both reporting over 600m MAUs in 2022, have heavily invested in their livestream ecommerce services too. Read more on Jing Daily (English)
🎮 Esports Over 40% of China’s Esports Players Are Women, Report Shows The number of women playing esports is expected to continue to rise, the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association said in a report. China’s esports industry achieved $20.8bn in revenue last year, down 14 percent from 2021. Some $3.8bn came from esports livestreaming, tournaments, clubs, and others, down 4 percent in the period. Read more on Yicai (English) Esports Organization Alliance Partners with Chinese Yuan Ye Qu Hotel chain Yuan Ye Qu has been named the strategic partner of Alliance, and the company will provide a training house for esports professional teams. In addition, the two companies will organise activities for fans to experience the life of being an esports professional player—the first stop of this activity will be the hotels and homestay in Changsha. Read more on The Esports Advocate (English)
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