2022 China Basketball Consumption Trends and Insights
In China, basketball is one of the sports with the highest participation and a broad user base. From the basketball audience perspective, the percentage of 6 to 65-year-olds in China who play basketball is about 11%, and the percentage is even higher in the 6 to 17-year-old group, making basketball the most important market in the sports business.
User Insights on Chinese Basketball Matches
According to Analysys’ “2022 China Basketball Content Consumption Trend Insights”, basketball tournament followers in China are mainly married, high-income white-collar workers, mainly men aged 25-40, whose love for basketball sprouted during their student years, and about 58% of fans began to take an interest in basketball in high school and college. Most of these people enjoy watching and playing basketball, with more than 54% of basketball fans playing basketball at least once a month.
Basketball games followers are mostly hardcore fans, with more than 60% of users frequently watching highlights of basketball games. Of these basketball fans, more than 51% watch at least one game per month, and about 10% watch it every week. In terms of viewing scenes, these basketball fans enjoy both solo and communal entertainment, with watching tournaments alone (69%) being the most common scene, followed by family members (53.9%) or friends (58.8%).
According to the survey, Migu Video is the preferred platform for fans to watch tournaments, nearly 46% of fans choose Migu Video to watch basketball tournaments and get basketball tips. This is followed by CCTV (38.3%) and Tencent Video (27%). In terms of platform selection, comprehensive coverage of tournaments, timeliness of updates, commentator line-up and professionalism of the commentator are the primary considerations for fans in choosing a viewing platform. Migu has advantages in these aspects and is also the fundamental reason favoured by fans
Among the various basketball tournaments, NBA, FIBA Basketball World Cup (FIBA) and CBA are the three major events that domestic fans pay the most attention to. Among them, clip highlights, live events, and on-demand are the most watched content by fans. Outside the pool, basketball variety shows and rankings are also popular. Judging by the reasons for paying attention to basketball games, fans’ love of basketball itself (54.7%), attention to specific basketball players (41.9%), and attention to a specific team (27%) are the reasons they focus on basketball tournaments. At the same time, outsiders also get attracted by the enthusiasm of other fans (26.9%), and are influenced by relatives and friends to immerse themselves in the world of basketball.
Approaching a major tournament (63.5%) is the main driver for basketball content consumption. In addition, the promotion and discounting of membership products (37.5%) and the expansion of viewing rights (33.5%) can also be effective in driving the consumption of basketball content. In terms of payment methods for watching games, nearly half of the fans (45.4%) spend 300 to 1,000 yuan per year on basketball content consumption, indicating high willingness and purchasing power.
Basketball advertising is becoming more popular in China
Basketball tournament advertising is widespread, more than 80% of fans pay attention to sponsors’ brands while watching the game, and more than half of fans pay attention to event sponsors’ brands frequently. The most popular sponsorship types among fans are those that are strongly associated with IP, such as events, stars and team sponsorship brands.
In terms of advertising formats, open product ads, interactive ads, H5 ads, video pre-roll ads and studio title/insert ads are the most popular among fans, due to the fact that they have little impact on the viewing experience, more interactive and interesting, and mature advertising types are more likely to be accepted by fans
Analysis of Chinese fans’ commodity consumption
Car consumption: Nearly 80% of fans are concerned about car consumption and plan to buy a car, and most of them plan to buy or change a car. Looking at the level of automobile consumption, more than 85% are high-end models worth more than 100,000 yuan and nearly 60% are models worth more than 150,000 yuan, so the overall consumption level is high, among which Tesla, BYD, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and other luxury brands are more popular among fans.
3C digital consumption: More than half of 3C fans consume digital products worth 1,000 – 3,000 yuan. The 3C digital products they are most concerned about are quality, configuration performance and intelligent functions. They are relatively less price sensitive, and less interested in cost efficiency and promotional discounts. In terms of brand preference, fans prefer mid-to-high-end mobile phone brands, with Apple and Huawei being the most popular.
Household appliance consumption: The annual consumption is concentrated at 2,000 – 3,000 yuan, and more than 70% of fans spend more than 2,000 yuan per year. Rich features, powerful performance, brand awareness and good value for money are the main expectations, with domestic brands clearly preferred by fans.
Clothing and apparel consumption: More than 60% of fans spend more than 2,000 yuan on clothing and accessories every year. They are more concerned about promotional discounts, followed by fashion and high-end clothing styles. They are price-conscious and have high aesthetic needs. Among the main types of clothing, fans prefer sportswear and accordingly prefer sports brands.
Alcohol consumption: The annual consumption is within 2,000 yuan, with the consumption of liquor and beer being prominent. Authenticity and taste are the most important factors when choosing alcohol products. The most popular liquor categories are Maotai and Wuliangye; classic beer brands such as Qingdao and Budweiser are the most popular.
Food and beverage consumption: Fans prefer casual snacks and soft drinks, both to satisfy their craving and to be healthy. They tend to choose healthy foods and beverages with low sugar content, but also pay attention to price and tend to stock up on food and beverages during promotions and discounts. High-quality snacks brands represented by Bestore Co and Three Squirrels and classic soft drink brands represented by Coca-Cola and Pepsi, President and Nongfu Spring are favoured by fans.
Analysis of Chinese basketball content platform and marketing opportunities
Migu Video
Migu Video has copyrights for many high-profile basketball tournaments such as CBA, NBA, Super League, etc. At the same time, it takes advantage of 5G, ultra-high-definition broadcasting and other technologies to provide users with a smoother and better viewing experience. Based on the copyrights of various top events, digital technologies, multiple interactions and derived contents are used to create a digital-age viewing experience.
Migu Video has rich basketball copyright resources to achieve mutual drainage and has developed an original advertising model for “provincial channels”. It also works with event organizations and China Mobile to improve content operation capabilities and brand reach efficiency.
- Tencent
Leverage Tencent’s new media matrix to maximize IP value, explore diversified profit models based on the Tencent platform’s distribution capabilities, such as tournament information or social dissemination on WeChat, and fully leverage Tencent’s own aggregation capabilities in social media.
CCTV
Building an open content community based on CCTV’s content resources, tapping on the IP value in the form of rich content, gathering leading new sports media, generating a large amount of professional content on the platform, attracting users to browse and discuss, and building a content ecology with diverse participation.
Kuaishou
Kuaishou became the CBA’s official 20/21 live broadcasting platform and official short videos platform, obtained content second creation permission, and entered into strategic cooperation with the NBA in the same year. Kuaishou focuses on building an ecology of short video content, launching official accounts of football stars, narrowing the gap between users, and fostering a sense of interaction. Under this partnership, Kuaishou also receives extensive tournament materials, promotes content creation, and provides rich gameplay and interactive content to meet various marketing needs.
To learn more about marketing for Chinese basketball platforms and users, please contact us.
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