Here are the top China sports business news stories you need to know from this week:
FIFA Lands in China
This week, FIFA announced its first official digital presence in China on Weibo – the country’s largest social media platform with 392 million monthly active users. To kick off its arrival in China, the official @FIFA account created a 2018 FIFA World Cup interactive campaign called ‘Pass the Ball’ to engage Chinese fans. Read more on FIFA Official Website (English)
Mailman Take: Weibo is China’s #1 social media platform for sports marketing and maintains more than 100 million users in the ‘sports fan’ category. Sport-related content drives more than 30 billion reads/impressions every month. There are currently more than 1,600 sports clubs and 130,000 athletes & sports stars with official Weibo accounts. During the 2018 NBA All-Star weekend, the number of related video views reached 770 million and topic searches hit 1.19 billion. It’s the perfect time for FIFA to launch on Weibo as they look to build on football’s recent success in China and engage directly with their fans during the upcoming World Cup in Russia.
PSG Grows in Greater China
French soccer giant Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) has announced an official partnership deal with Chinese sports marketing agency Desports to facilitate PSG’s business growth in China and Hong Kong. The deal will be valid until the end of the 2020/21 season. Read more on Soccerex (English)
F1 Signs Broadcast Deal in China
The Formula One (F1) global motorsport series has signed a host of broadcast deals with three Chinese media companies. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV5 will cover the full F1 season, whilst TV broadcaster Great Sports and digital platform Tencent Sports will share the broadcasting rights with CCTV. Read more on Jiemian.com (Chinese) and SportsPro (English)
Mailman Take: After 5 years without F1 coverage, CCTV has won back the F1 broadcasting rights, despite the recent influx of powerful digital media platforms vying for coverage. CCTV still holds a lot of respect within the Chinese broadcast industry and was the first official Chinese broadcaster to show live sports. As the official government sports channel, CCTV still has the rights to the most sought-after sports properties such as the Olympics and FIFA World Cup.
MELING Sponsors Belgian National Football Team
Chinese electrical product manufacturer MELING has reached a sponsorship agreement with the Belgian National Men’s Football Team. The two sides will develop a cooperation in product design and brand marketing. Read more on Sohu (Chinese)
Roland Garros Tennis Park Comes to China
The French Tennis Federation (FFT) has signed a partnership agreement with the Municipal Government of Changsha, Hunan Province to bring the Roland Garros Tennis Park to Changsha. This partnership will allow Changsha to host a series of tennis tournaments such as ATP and WTA events, once the construction of the Tennis Park has been completed. Read more on XinhuaNet (Chinese)
FC Barcelona Extends Partnership with SPDB
As the club’s regional partner in China, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB) has renewed its partnership contract with La Liga giants FC Barcelona until June 2020. Read more on SportsPro (English)
Alibaba Crowned China’s Most Valuable Technology Brand
According to Brand Finance’s latest report, Alibaba Group is 2018’s most valuable Chinese brand within the tech sector, having achieved a value of $54.9 billion. Tencent came in second with Huawei third. Read the full list of China’s 300 top brands 2018 here and more on BrandFinance’s Official Website (English)
New Balance Signs Chinese Ambassador
Chinese actor Leo Wu has become a brand ambassador for American multinational sportswear brand New Balance in China. Read more on Ecosports (Chinese)
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Mailman is a leading China sports digital and marketing platform. We help global rights holders, athletes and brands build a successful business in China.