{"id":969,"date":"2017-07-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/sport-business\/reports\/leaders-in-beijing-the-inside-line\/"},"modified":"2022-03-18T12:22:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T12:22:29","slug":"leaders-beijing-inside-line","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/sport-business\/articles\/leaders-beijing-inside-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders in Beijing \u2013 The Inside Line"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Jul 25, 2017 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Leaders in Beijing \u2013 The Inside Line<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Strategy & Commercialisation<\/a> <\/div>\n
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In review: The Leaders Sport Business Summit in Beijing.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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As the rain thundered down across Beijing, the corridors and halls of Sina Plaza boomed with conversation as the first Leaders Sport Business Summit in China rolled into town on 21st July.<\/h4>\n

Sina<\/strong> is one of China\u2019s internet darlings; the creators of Weibo, and, in Sina Sports, one of the country\u2019s leading digital sports content and community platforms. The internet giant\u2019s shiny new headquarters were a fitting setting for a summit with the future of the sports industry as its focus.<\/p>\n

Over 200 flights into Beijing were cancelled on the night before the event\u00a0on account of the weather, but almost 250 intrepid souls made it down to the \u2018Beijing Silicon Valley\u2019 for the summit \u2013 including the sponsors that made it happen in iRENA<\/strong>, SAP<\/strong>, and Nielsen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What went down<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

After the customary welcome from Leaders CEO James Worrall<\/strong> \u2013 using his own idiosyncratic and bold attempt at Mandarin \u2013 it was over to our hosts, as Arthur Wei<\/strong>, General Manager of Sina Sports, took the podium.<\/p>\n

Potted history<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a short opening presentation, Wei stressed just how rapidly the Chinese sports media market has progressed. It was as recently as 1984 that China was being welcomed in from the wilderness back into the Olympic movement, jump-starting a medals machine that\u2019s still whirring today, and breathing new life into its economy through the Reform and Open Door Policy. In 2015, the government\u2019s State Council Article No.46 \u2013 otherwise known as the RMB 5 trillion ($815 billion) target for the domestic sports industry by 2025 \u2013 re-energised the sports market again. Sina, already operators of one of the country\u2019s largest social networks in Weibo, took the opportunity to move its sports offering on in a newly liberalised environment, adding an events arm and forging ahead with short form tournaments in 3×3 basketball and 5-aside soccer.<\/p>\n

Major Leagues, Major Market<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wise words from WWE Greater China GM Jay Li<\/strong> in a panel focused on the varying strategies of the major US sports bodies for cracking China. \u201cAs a rights holder here, the critical thing is to keep your finger on the pulse and keep gauging where the media market is going.\u201d And, as NBA China COO Collins Qian<\/strong> pointed out, wherever that media market is going, the pace at which it\u2019s going there is difficult to comprehend. \u201cI joined the NBA in 2010, the year before Weibo started; Wechat started a couple of years after that. In the time I\u2019ve been at the league, both those organisations have added half a billion users from scratch.\u201d The power and pervasiveness of those social networks is extraordinary, and delivering bespoke, local content seems to be a must for any international rights holder in China. How are the NBA doing it? Well, they\u2019re finding ways to get the players to celebrate Chinese New Year, eat dumplings and practice kung-fu of course.<\/p>\n

Interlude<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

If this were a blow-by-blow, real-time account of the conference, we\u2019d all be going for a coffee at this point. Instead, why not have a look at this, the latest edition of the SportsBusiness Daily \u2013 Global<\/a>. There\u2019s a good primer on the latest government intervention in Chinese sport in there \u2013 which is handy \u2013 as state-controlled CCTV spoke out against Suning\u2019s ownership of sports properties earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

Ground control to Major Zhu<\/strong><\/p>\n

China is arguably one of the most competitive markets for the sportswear industry. The traditional international giants are in a constant wrestle with nimble local players like Peak, Li Ning, and Anta, whose recent $80 million endorsement deal with Klay Thompson caught the eye. Major Zhu<\/strong>, a major player at Anta as Senior Brand Director, explained that, unlike Nike and Adidas, \u201cwho focus on performance, Anta is figuring out how to incorporate Klay Thompson\u2019s personality into our brand strategy.\u201d Thompson, Zhu said, is a down-to-earth guy whose recent visit to China transformed him into an icon. LVMH Greater China CMO Loic Biver<\/strong>, meanwhile, was put on the spot with a question about ROI and eyeballs from Nielsen\u2019s Claude Ringuet. <\/strong>Biver looks after the marketing strategies for Hublot and Tag Heuer in China, and neither are easy to measure. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to measure ROI when you invest in sports in China,\u201d he said. \u201cHublot\u2019s target audience is to talk to owners and players; Tag\u2019s target audience is the mass \u2013 then your ROI is the eyeballs, how many people watch this, how many people watch that; and it\u2019s clear the viewers are here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark of the course<\/strong><\/p>\n

CMC Holdings President Clark Xu<\/strong> led a brisk jog through an investment strategy that has seen China Media Capital, whose shareholders include the likes of Tencent and Alibaba, position itself as one of the earliest and one of the most diligent Chinese investors across the global sports industry. An exciting tie-up with the CAA agency in the Chinese region is the latest addition to a portfolio that includes a key holding in City Football Group, a position alongside Wanda in the ownership of Infront Sports & Media, and a stake in Formula E. China\u2019s swashbuckling conglomerates have been doused in cold water of late, their global acquisition strategies reined in by government-imposed capital outflow restrictions, currency fluctuations, and closer scrutiny of their holdings at home. According to Xu, the situation is a short-term roadblock, not something more long-lasting. \u201cWe are being affected by the situation,\u201d he said. \u201cFortunately for us, we have both an RMB and US dollar investment fund. But we are focusing more on consolidating some of our assets, and less on cross-border investment at the moment. We don\u2019t think this will be a long-term restriction though. We still feel we\u2019re in a good position.\u201d<\/p>\n