The Chinese Sport Market, harder and harder

Despite its immense potential, the Chinese sport market remains difficult to tame for European and North American sports organizations. 

A big market BUT 

Few of them have managed to generate very significant income by developing their activities in this new territory. And the geopolitical context could lead them to temporarily prioritize other markets in their internationalization strategy.

Sportswear is a popular category of clothing in China. In fact, the country is currently the world’s largest market for sportswear, worth an estimated $US27.5 billion in 2017. There are a number of reasons for this popularity, including a growing middle class with more disposable income and an increasing focus on health and fitness. Additionally, many foreign brands are now manufacturing sportswear in China, making it more accessible to consumers. If you’re looking to sell sportswear in China, there are a few key factors you need to keep in mind. From understanding the consumer profile to having a robust e-commerce strategy, read on for five tips to help you succeed in this lucrative market. Source https://explainsfactor.com/2022/11/05/5-factors-to-sell-sportswear-in-china/

Partnership in China

Of the fifty or so major partnerships that the team based in Hinwil in Switzerland has, only two come from China. Last February, Alfa Romeo F1 Team had formalized a first agreement with the dairy firm AMX while SenseTime – a Chinese company specializing in artificial intelligence – has just signed up with the team powered by Ferrari. Nevertheless, to believe the words of Frédéric Vasseur, these first chords are only the quivering of a movement that should grow in the future. “We have signed our 2nd partnership with a Chinese company. It's a good step forward and I'm very happy with it. We have made many contacts in China and the work is starting to bear fruit. Even if I know it will be a long process” continues the Team Principal of the Swiss team.

The signing of a top Chinese athlete is therefore not enough to automatically generate new lines of revenue from this market of more than 1.4 billion people. Alfa Romeo F1 Team is not the first sports organization to experience this. Despite a resounding media impact and a buzz effect when he signed – club equipment supplier Kelme announced the sale of 10,000 shirts in China just a month after his arrival – RCD Espanyol did not manage to significantly develop their revenue in the region following the recruitment of international Wu Lei. The club's overall sponsorship revenue has fluctuated in recent years between €10m and €15m - and even fell to €5m during the club's Segunda División season - only a tiny fraction of which came from the Middle Kingdom despite the presence at its head of a Chinese owner in the person of Chen Yansheng. Receipts which are light years away from the income garnered by the main leaders of La Liga while Espanyol has nothing to be ashamed of in terms of TV audiences recorded in China compared to Real Madrid or even the great Catalan rival.

The New Crazy Emigration of Rich Chinese People

The Chinese Communist party under its new leader Xi Jinping unveiled a striking programme of reforms aimed at rebalancing the world’s second-biggest economy in favour of market forces and the private sector.

Under its 60-point reform plan Xi’s new administration promised to get rid of obstacles that had been holding back consumer-led growth in China — including enforcing a property tax, granting more land rights to farmers and migrant workers, and opening state-controlled sectors to private capital.

FT https://www.ft.com/content/92cbe94d-05a0-4ece-bca9-68cb82244b17

 

The state’s tight grip was about to ease. If implemented as planned, analysts predicted at the time, China could maintain 7 per cent annual gross domestic product growth for at least the decade to come and make the transition into the category of high-income nations.

Almost 10 years on, many of those promises remain unfulfilled. At the same time, the Chinese economy faces diminishing returns after relying for years on growth that has been propelled by a debt-fuelled real estate investment boom.

Battered by Xi’s controversial zero-Covid policy, stiffening global economic headwinds and a slumping housing market, this year is set to mark the first time since the early 1990s that China’s growth rate will fall behind the rest of the region.