Hello Industry Friends, here’s the biggest news from China over the past seven days.
📰 Headlines: NBA China signs Xpeng Motors partnership, Kuaishou cements CCTV tie-up, Sun loses Olympics appeal, CFA seeks image revamp with Fosun, CSL season start hits roadblocks, Suning turns to private equity option.
🗞️ Top Industry News
NBA China Scores Xpeng Motors Partnership The smart car brand will activate and gain brand exposure to the NBA’s millions of fans in China, as the three-year partnership kicks off with activities around events including the NBA3X. Read more on SportBusiness (English) and Sina (Chinese)
Kuaishou Cements CCTV Partnership with Glitzy Media Event During the Tokyo Olympic Games and Beijing Winter Olympics, Kuaishou will cooperate with CCTV’s Voice of China to launch several activities throughout the competitions to further promote the influence of sports across the country. Read more on Pandaily (English) and ECO Sports (Chinese)
💡 Mailman Take: Kuaishou is serious about sport. A relative newcomer to the industry, its reputation has soared, highlighted by this CCTV partnership for the upcoming summer and winter Olympics. The platform recently hit 1Bn MAUs, the fourth Chinese internet company to do so after Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance.
Sun Sets on Yang’s Tokyo Olympics
China's three-time Olympic champion’s eight-year doping ban was reduced to four years and three months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas). The ban is backdated to 28 February, 2020 and means the swimmer will miss this summer's Olympics in Tokyo. Read more on BBC (English) and China News (Chinese)
CFA Calls on Fosun for Product Revamp The multinational conglomerate will exclusively develop licensed products for the IP of the Chinese Football Association’s (CFA) National Team. This series is designed to create a new style brand for the team, combining music, art, and food. Read more on Jiemian (Chinese)
💡 Mailman Take: With a World Cup spot still alive and optimism high, Fosun is the latest company to identify a commercial opportunity with the team. The national team is in need of a refreshed identity with new ways to appeal to the younger generations and a broader fan base outside of sport.
CSL Season Start Hits Roadblocks The postponement is down to the quarantine of those who helped China qualify for the third round of Asian qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. “We are researching three specific plans to make the Super League work in this year’s special situation,” Chen Xuyuan, Chairman of the CFA, told Xinhua. Read more on Reuters (English) and Beijing Youth Daily (Chinese) Depleted PP Sports Bags Brasileirão Championship Rights The Suning-owned platform which lost the majority of its rights in recent years will have exclusive access to three games per round of Serie A for the remainder of the current season. Read more on Insider Sport (English) and ECO Sports (Chinese) 💡 Mailman Take: A far cry from PP Sports’ exclusive EPL and Bundesliga deals in recent years. The platform is attempting to remain relevant, but will it be enough?
🎮 Esports Franchised Leagues Join Tencent Esports’ Anti-Match-Fixing Convention
Led by Tencent Esports, four of China’s top franchised leagues have signed the agreement alongside nine Tencent esports competitions. Once players or staff are involved in match-fixing, they will not be able to attend all Tencent-related esports competitions. Read more on the Esports Observer (English) and Zaker (Chinese) BLAST Premier extends DouYu Partnership The CS:GO tournament series has renewed & expanded its media rights deal with streaming service DouYu, which retains exclusive broadcast rights for the rest of the season, while extending them to Huya and Bilibili’s streaming platforms. Read more on Esports Insider (English)
Opinion Can Douyin’s Regional Rivals Challenge it for Top Dog in China’s Short-Form Video Market?
While TikTok has taken the West by storm, its Chinese counterpart Douyin faces a range of rivals, each vying to take a chunk out of its domestic dominance. For a deep dive into all things mobile, The Drum explores which ones are worth our attention. Read the full article on The Drum (English) Chinese Companies Sign up for EURO 2020 Football Sponsorships in a Bid to go Global
The Chinese government has encouraged homegrown companies to go abroad, as many businesses are eager to boost their brands by selling overseas. Read more on CNBC (English) China Goes Global with Sports Sponsorship Gary Bowerman takes a look at the reasons why Chinese companies see tournaments such as EURO 2020 and the Olympics as valuable sponsorship opportunities. Read more on Asia Media Center (English)
🗞️ Other News Suning Turns to Private Equity Option Once China’s dominant retailer of home appliances, Suning is now planning to buy unspecified assets from a local private equity fund to revive the group, following years of rapid decline. Read more on SCMP (English) and Zaker (Chinese
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