[Source: Formula E] Formula E Holdings has announced that CMC Capital Partners are to become a shareholder in the company, adding to the growing list of investors joining the electric street racing series.

The investment is led by CMC Capital Partners - China’s leading investor and operator in media and entertainment, sports, internet and mobile, and lifestyle sectors - whose consortium also includes SECA (a CMC portfolio company).

Alejandro Agag, Founder & CEO of Formula E, said: “We are excited to welcome CMC Capital Partners, led by Mr. Ruigang Li, to the increasing list of investors joining Formula E and the electric revolution. China is an important player in the potential of electric vehicle manufacturing and production, and this partnership reinforces our intentions to promote sustainable mobility across Asia and Mainland China. The opening round of each season has been hosted in this region - Beijing and Hong Kong - and we have teams and drivers such as TECHEETAH and Ma Qing Hua already competing in the series. We look forward to working closely with CMC Capital Partners, and continuing to grow the profile of Formula E in key territories across the globe."

Ruigang Li, Founding Chairman of CMC, said: “The global automotive industry is now undergoing profound changes with the power source shifting to renewable energy from traditional petrochemical. China is playing a central role in promoting these changes with its vast auto market. The evolution of the auto industry has also brought historic opportunities for motorsports. Since its inauguration three years ago, Formula E has quickly evolved into a premium global sports IP under a first-class leadership, with remarkable progress in promoting sustainability, innovation, and market penetration of electric vehicles, as well as in media partnership, sponsorship and tourism. CMC has been focusing on investing in premium global and local sports IPs, and we look forward to working together with Formula E both in China and globally.”

[SOURCE: IOC] The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Alibaba Group on 19^th January jointly announced a long-term partnership through 2028. Joining The Olympic Partner (TOP) worldwide sponsorship programme, Alibaba will become the official “Cloud Services” and “E-Commerce Platform Services” Partner, as well as a Founding Partner of the Olympic Channel.

The partnership was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with IOC President Thomas Bach, Alibaba Group Founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma and Alibaba Group Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang.

Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, said: “In this new digital world, Alibaba is uniquely positioned to help the IOC achieve a variety of key objectives outlined in Olympic Agenda 2020, while positively shaping the future of the Olympic Movement. This is a ground-breaking, innovative alliance, and will help drive efficiencies in the organisation of the Olympic Games through 2028, whilst also supporting the global development of digital opportunities including the Olympic Channel.”

“Alibaba’s partnership with the IOC is built on a foundation of shared values and a common vision for connecting the world and enriching people’s lives,” said Jack Ma, Founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group. “We are proud to support Olympic Agenda 2020, using our innovations and technologies to help evolve the Olympic Games for the digital era.”

Through this partnership, Alibaba’s contributions to the Olympic Movement will include:

Best-in-class cloud computing infrastructure and cloud services to help the Olympic Games operate more efficiently, effectively and securely, including supporting big data analytics requirements;

The creation of a global e-commerce platform for Olympic stakeholders to engage and connect with fans seeking official Olympic licensed products manufactured by the Olympic parties’ official licensees, and selected sports products, on a worldwide basis; and

Leveraging Alibaba’s leading digital media technologies and know-how to develop and customise the Olympic Channel for a Chinese audience.

“Alibaba is proud to empower the International Olympic Committee in a game-changing digital transformation, while moving another step closer toward our goal to serve 2 billion consumers,” said Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group. “We will leverage our experience in serving a young user base to help connect more young people to the Olympic Movement, helping to strengthen our brand through this historic partnership.”

Tsunekazu Takeda, the IOC’s Marketing Commission Chair, said: “We are delighted to be working in the long term with Alibaba for the benefit of the Olympic Movement. This strategic partnership underlines the global appeal of the Olympic values and opens an exciting new chapter in this digital age.”

Alibaba is the first company to make a long-term commitment to the IOC through 2028 and the first Chinese company to commit to the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

Alibaba will support the organisers of each edition of the Olympic Games, and the Olympic Movement around the world. These rights will include advertising and promotional use of Olympic marks and imagery from the Olympic Games as well as marks from the National Olympic Committees.

Alibaba’s global activation rights will include the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and the Olympic and Olympic Winter Games in 2024, 2026 and 2028 in cities yet to be selected by the IOC.

Gou Zhongwen, director of China's General Administration of Sport, has been named president of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC).

He succeeds Liu Peng, who has served as president of the COC since 2005 and is now honorary chairman.

The appointments were made at the COC session in Beijing at the end of 2016 and announced by state media agency Xinhua.

In November 2016, the 59-year-old Guo was appointed director of China's General Administration of Sport following Liu’s retirement from this position at the age of 65. In April 2016 he was appointed deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China's Beijing municipal committee.

In 2008, Guo was appointed vice-mayor of Beijing in 2008 responsible for education and technology. He also ran the leading group for Beijing's campus soccer development.

He was deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology from 2002.

Under Liu Peng’s leadership, China rose to prominence in several Olympic sports, including table tennis, badminton and diving, at three summer and three winter Olympic Games, topping the medal table at Beijing 2008.

Liu also played a lead role in Beijing’s successful bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach in Lausanne on December 11 to discuss how China can strengthen its cooperation with the global sports organisation.

On his visit to Switzerland Wang also met with the director-generals of the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as the president of Switzerland.

According to China Daily, Wang told Bach, “China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the IOC while upholding the Olympic spirit.”

Wang also expressed his confidence in the Beijing and Zhangjiakou’s ability to stage the Winter Olympic Games in 2022, highlighting the success of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

"With the all-out efforts of the Chinese people and the substantial help of the IOC, I am confident that the 2022 Winter Olympics will be another huge success," he said.

According to Yutang Sports Marketing, Wang stressed the importance of sports in human and national development, recognising the great contributions the IOC has made to promoting global sports development and strengthening the friendship among people from different countries.

Bach reportedly said China’s plans for sports development are at one with the IOC’s, noting the tremendous contributions China has made to the IOC and expressing gratitude to China for its cooperation with the IOC.

The IOC also looks set to strengthen this cooperation beyond the hosting of the Winter Games. "The IOC will be a full helping hand in delivering a fruitful 2022 Winter Olympics, while expecting to team up on further cooperation with China," Bach said.

In the meeting with UN Director General Michael Moller, Wang said "Against the backdrop that the global situation is continuously becoming more complicated, the role of the United Nations can only be strengthened instead of weakened."

Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, told Wang "China has set an excellent example in poverty alleviation and health undertakings, and I believe it will contribute more to improving global public health and sustainable development."

Leading figures from the world of sport governance and major event ownership convened in Glasgow on Monday and Tuesday for the Host City 2016 Exhibition and Conference to discuss how to attract and host secure and engaging sports, business and cultural events.

It was also announced that an additional “Host City Asia” event will take place in Beijing on 18 October 2017. 

“In its third year, Host City conference and exhibition is firmly established as the leading international meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events. We are delighted to see Host City continuing to grow in Glasgow, Scotland,” said Matthew Astill, CEO of Cavendish Group.

“In response to incredible market demand, we are pleased to launch an additional Host City Asia event in Beijing in 2017, where international event owners and suppliers will meet Chinese and Asian hosts and investors.”

Speaking at Host City 2016, Wang Dong, Vice President of Chinese sports media company Alisports: said “This is the spring of the Chinese sports industry… we want to get more people involved in the beauty of sport.”

Host City is the largest and fastest growing international meeting of its kind. At the third edition, the topics of future major events and integrity of sport were high on the agenda.

In his opening keynote address heading up a list of world-class speakers, Sir Craig Reedie CBE, IOC member and president of the World Anti-Doping Agency talked about how in an ever-more competitive field, hosting events is a “very active place” in contrast to the major multi sports events like the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games who, he said, have struggled to attract bid cities in recent years.

During the first panel discussion on the topic “What does future hold for major events?” Dimitri Kerkentzes, deputy secretary general, BIE (World Expos) said: “World Expos cannot be viewed from home. They must have participation and support from the public… We need to ensure that the event will benefit people from the host cities, and that it doesn’t leave white elephants behind.”

Simon Clegg CBE, Chief Operating Officer, World Expo Dubai 2020 highlighted the large ticket sale expectations and expansive physical set-up of World Expo Dubai 2020.

Francesco Ricci Bitti, President, ASOIF (Association of Summer Olympic International Federations) said: “The tangible and intangible impacts of sporting events on the community are very important.

"We need to be cautious about the fairness of the bidding process.”

He also commented that the level of flexibility afforded by the new bidding rules set out in IOC’s Agenda 2020 programme of reform needs to be carefully considered, saying “Changing venues from the bid book is taking it too far."

Sarah Lewis, Secretary General of the international Ski Federation (FIS) and the Association of Olympic International Winter Federations (AOIWF) said: “It is necessary to maximize the usage of existing facilities that would change the focus on having compact events. Compact events are convenient but don’t offer the best legacy opportunities”. She said “multi-city and multi-country events may be the future”.

Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events, VisitScotland said: “The benefits of hosting major events are both hard and soft. The soft benefits, which you have to articulate very carefully, are becoming very important.

“The importance of transparency in the bidding process is crucial right now and is growing every year”.

The issue of good governance was further explored in the following panel session on “Has sport lost its integrity and how can it win confidence back?”

Dr. Bridget McConnell CBE, Chief Executive, Glasgow Life said: “A city’s values must shape and drive what you bid for and how you do it. If you lose public confidence in sport integrity you lose countries and cities bidding.”

When asked whether cities would turn their back on hosting events that can’t prove their integrity, she said “I can certainly say this of Glasgow. We would not want to be connected to any sport that had major controversy associated with it”.

Yves Le Lostecque, Head of Sport, European Commission said “In Europe we are defending values and we have to promote them. Integrity and governance are key parts of the EU mandate for sports. Our member states are keen to have the values maintained and we can help through policy cooperation and financial support.”

Adam Pengilly, IOC Member, VP of International affairs, International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) said: “Sport has an inherent value. The Games is loved all over the world… but sports politicians are sometimes lowly viewed.”

He also said "the perception of sport as a utopia needs to be changed. We need to be more realistic when looking at it".

Risto Nieminen, President, Finnish Olympic Committee said: “We need to create standard for doping control that spans across all countries” and added “business and entertainment are not the basis of sport. Instead, inspiration, well-being, optimism, and happiness.”

Ignacio Packer, Secretary General of children’s rights charity Terre des Hommes said: “The sport sector is opening up increasingly to the human rights sector”. He also questioned the tendency to limit the definition of “success” in hosting events to financial outcomes. “We believe that success is about people”. Ignacio also commented on his participation at the Host City Conference saying “I like coming to Host City because I am not with usual colleagues. I learn a lot here.”

The delegates, which included several IOC members, were also addressed by senior figures involved in bidding for the 2024 Olympic Games from Budapest, Los Angeles and Paris.

The Host City brand began life in China in 2003 as a bilingual magazine for the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. The Deputy Mayor of Beijing in 2009 presented the CEO of Cavendish Group with the “Great Wall Friendship” award in recognition of Host City’s role in bringing foreign technology content to China and creating an Olympic infrastructure partnership.

Cavendish Group is also known as the owner of the ICC (www.internationalcapitalconference.com ), China’s largest outbound investment event that is now in its seventh edition.

Host City’s Editorial and Conference Director Ben Avison said: “China is investing $850bn in sports by 2025 and is looking for global partners to develop its entertainment and cultural sectors. Host City Asia provides the platform to connect the international industry with this booming market.”

All the Host City 2016 Conference keynote addresses and plenary session content be streamed at www.hostcity.com/hc2016/audio – provided by sound-sharing platform audioBoom.

After decades of economic growth fuelled by exports, China is now concentrating on building domestic markets to sustain its economic growth. Sport has been identified as a particular area of potential, with $850m being invested in a programme of “Development of Sports Industry and Promoting Sports Consumption”.

Football is pivotal to this development programme. The Chinese Football Association has set targets for China to become a world football superpower by 2050 and President Xi Jinping has declared his ambition for the national team to win the World Cup.

The Prime Minister of India has also highlighted football as part of the National Vision. Just how far and fast can the development of football in India and China go, and how is it being achieved?

“What I perceive of those two countries is that there is clearly a much stronger interest in football. There is more dedication from the government,” Alexander Koch, Head of Corporate Communications at FIFA told delegates at World Football Forum.

“There is a much better focus from the FIFA side and we are working on interesting programmes on developing football.”

The growth of football in Asia is already bringing commercial rewards, with revenues from broadcasting international football in Asia on course to equal those from Europe.

“FIFA’s TV income for the 2018 World Cup will, for the first time, have more from outside Europe than in Europe,” he says. “Maybe in the long term we could think of getting one third from Europe and Africa, one third from Asia and one third from the two Americas.”

China and India may be geographical neighbours, but the world’s two most populous countries show contrasting approaches to development.

“It’s very dangerous to generalise,” says Mike Pfister, Senior Development Manager at FIFA. “An emerging market does not equal an emerging football market.

“India is vastly different to China, both in terms of development of football, the way it is structured as well as the opportunities and challenges for development.”

Indian renaissance

Way back in 1950, India was a regionally successful footballing nation that qualified for the World Cup, although they were unable to participate due to a lack of resources. But the 60s and 70s saw a marked decline in football development and it was not until 2005 that a permanent headquarters for India’s national football federation was established.

“There were no professional structures to develop football,” Mike Pfister says. “The first General Secretary came into FIFA in 2011. So in a way that’s a federation that’s just five years old!”

Peter Hutton, CEO of Eurosport was working for IMG when he moved to India in 1994 and found very little football on television. “I finally found an Indian football match on TV – the national cup final. It went to extra time, and the moment it went to penalties it cut off for the news and it didn’t come back! At that point you’ve got to think there’s an opportunity there.”

IMG launched the India’s first national league a year and a half later. “It didn’t follow all the dreams we had for it, but you tapped into the undeniable enthusiasm for football in India and you knew there was something there that could really grow, and it’s fantastic to see how it has grown in the last 20 years.”

The scale of India’s investment into football is incomparable to China’s. “We are behind in terms of investment; there is no comparison,” says Kushal Das, General Secretary at the All India Football Federation.

“But then that’s still the case for every industry – the investment levels in China have been significantly higher in every aspect. We don’t have that kind of money, that’s for sure – but we also don’t have a bubble.”

Outbound investment in sports

Chinese companies are rapidly investing in overseas sports and entertainment brands. Dalian Wanda alone has recently bought the Ironman triathlon, Infront Sports & Media, a 20 per cent stake in Atletico Madrid, worldwide sponsorship and licensing rights for FIBA events, US film studio Legendary Entertainment and North America's second-largest cinema chain, AMC Entertainment.

Wanda became the first Chinese FIFA Partner in March 2016. In July it announced the launch of the “China Cup” international football tournament with the Chinese Football Association, the first edition of which will take place in Nanning in January 2017 between China and three major teams from Europe and the Americas.

Alisports – launched in 2015 by ecommerce giant Alibaba – has gained online broadcasting rights from World Rugby in exchange for investments in the development of rugby in China. China Everbright and Beijing Baofeng have bought a 65 per cent stake in Italian TV rights distributor MP & Silva. A Chinese consortium now owns 13 per cent of City Football Group, the owner of Manchester City and New York City football clubs.

India is not investing its way into the global sports market in the same way. “Indian corporates are not looking at investing in foreign clubs at the moment; it’s more about improving the standards of Indian football within India,” Sunando Dhar, CEO of I-League tells Host City.

“China’s paying huge amounts of money to bring foreign talent into China; I don’t think at the moment we can afford that kind of money in Indian football. We are trying to put a system in order first. Once that’s done, once the market becomes a little more advanced, maybe we can think of going global. At the moment we are trying to have a national feel to it.”

India’s sport industry is not outbound in the same way as its other more acquisitive industries, such as steel and automotive.

“The reason for that is that they are already developed in those industries. Football is still at a very nascent stage in India. We need to develop ourselves; that’s what we are trying to do now. Once we have done that – it may take five, ten, 15 or 20 years – once we do that we’ll think of the next plan.”

European football fever

Football is undoubtedly growing in popularity all over Asia. However, there is a concern that enthusiasm is focused on European rather than local teams.

“Growing markets are good for development if you can connect that with the passion that football can generate. However, what you also see quite often in these emerging football powers is a dichotomy of passion in football,” says Mike Pfister.

“You will find in South East Asia for example a great deal of football fans who are passionate about football – they will stay up until four in the morning to watch the Champions League final. But that is in stark contrast to their interest in local and national football teams.”

Peter Hutton says: “One of the sad things about South East Asia is that the Premier League is so prevalent and the local clubs struggle so much by comparison. I think India and China have the chance to do it a different way and really establish the strong basis for local clubs.

“The international leagues that broadcast into India and China have a fan base, a dedicated audience, but they don’t have that potential to engage so deeply with Chinese and Indian audiences. So the potential for local leagues is huge.”

However, the growing popularity of football in India is still mostly directed towards European football clubs, Sunando Dhar tells Host City.

“Football here is very popular. It’s maybe more popular than cricket in urban youth. But the thing is, football for most urban youth is the English Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A – so that’s what we are competing against.

“The European leagues to an extent are cannibalising Indian football – eating into it. That’s a tough battle to fight.

“So that’s why we are trying to put systems in place, trying to glamorise our sports, trying to bring big brand ambassadors into football – from cricket, from Bollywood – these are the two biggest industries people follow.

“And we have seen in season one and season two, bringing in players like Del Piero and Zico who not only bring their expertise on the field but also act as a brand ambassador for the game. That’s having an impact; people are coming to the stadiums, attendance is rising which is fantastic. We now need to create Indian stars.”

Hosting touring European clubs

The number of European football teams touring Asia continues to rise. There are many benefits for the hosts of these tours, says Paul Kam, Chairman of ProEvents Group, which promotes tours to Asia for European football clubs.

“There a number of benefits of overseas clubs coming to Asia,” he tells Host City. “Firstly for the local economy, it brings out all the benefits of job creation, it makes sure the city has better infrastructure – they have to maintain the stadium well to be able to host international events. These really put the country and the city on the football map.

“It also helps to improve football players’ conditions, their know-how and knowledge of looking after themselves as athletes. It also increases the popularity of the sport.”

The benefits for European clubs are clear. “They are able to secure more fans, so they may sell more shirts and they come here to get more fan base, which nowadays everybody is talking about – Manchester United is saying they have 600m fans all over the world. Where has that come from? It’s come from them reaching out to be face to face with the spectators.”

In the 25 years ProEvents has been in business, Kam has seen the growing trend of European clubs coming to Asia to compete against one another, instead of against local teams.

“There are many more matches coming up which are just purely foreign team versus foreign team. The trend is going to be there because people love football, from China’s point of view and from Asia’s point of view.

“The Premier League is by far the best league, in front of other leagues like La Liga and Serie A. So people love to see their players; they watch them on the TV every week – and now they can see it in front of them, so of course they will buy tickets.

“People come to watch an international event. If they buy a ticket to watch Barcelona versus Arsenal for example, they have expectations, they will see Messi, Neymar, Suarez, Giroud, Sanchez– they are the reason why they buy tickets to go and see the football match.”

The concern is that there is a missed opportunity for developing football in Asia if local players don’t have the chance to play alongside these big names.

“We always try to strike a balance. My theory is that they should play against local teams, which has much more meat in it because the locals will benefit, foreign teams will benefit – it’s a win-win thing. And then the local boys can improve.

“And what about Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore for example? They are much lower down than China for example, but how do they improve if they don’t get a chance to play? In 2017 there will be a host of teams coming over to Asia to play against Asian teams, against other foreign teams.”

All-European matches also pose organisational challenges for their overseas hosts. “As a promoter, you have double costs. That means twice the security; twice the transportation, twice the food, flights and everything.

“If I can make the mathematics right it’s a good investment, but if the cost is too high then I personally would prefer to have a foreign team play against a local team.”

Grass roots development

The success of China and India’s football development programmes will depend on their ability to tap into talent all over the country. FIFA is working closely with the Chinese Football Association to build competence nationwide.

“It’s not a problem of spreading the support or making it more popular – the popularity is there. But if you look at where the big football hubs are in China, they are in coastal hubs around the economic powerhouses – Guangzhou and Shanghai,” says Mike Pfister.

“China needs to spread westward. The government’s ‘go west’ strategy still applies to football – going into the provinces again, tap into the 1.6bn people that you have. There is a lot of potential that is untapped there.

“Creativity is home-grown. Yes, you can bring in foreign coaches but you have to have your own physiognomy and philosophy. Money is important but passion is more so and this is needed to develop locally.”

Without major corporate outbound investment in sports brands and European clubs, India’s success will rely on building talent domestically.

“You can’t compare the Indian and the Chinese model. In India what we are doing at the moment is looking inward,” says Sunando Dhar.

“We are trying to improve our house, keep things simple, invest in grass roots development and hope clubs run their teams in a professional manner.”

Hosting and winning the World Cup

The ultimate aims for any footballing nation are to host and win the World Cup. At 152 in the FIFA world ranking, India has a long way to go, but the country is taking a major step forward by hosting the under 17 (U17) World Cup in 2017.

“One aspect of the U17 World Cup is to deliver FIFA-standard infrastructure,” says Kushal Das. “The challenge will be to have a very competitive Indian team, because we don’t have a system where it is developed from an early age.”

Whether India could one day host the men’s World Cup is a different question. “What India is doing next year with the U17 World Cup is an important step on that road. You certainly see the potential of the World Cup to change the perception of football in a country,” says Peter Hutton.

“I think that when you’ve got economies as big as India or China it’s got to be worth, from a FIFA perspective, considering that option.

“I think the sensible first move for India is to do the U17s. Let’s see how that works, let’s build an infrastructure that can support football – and then let’s keep an eye on what we can do in those sorts of markets. Because if we can genuinely make those markets football obsessed, football hungry and aware of their position in the world, then I think the potential is enormous.”

China, with a team ranked 81 in the world, is keen to host the World Cup within a generation. “They don’t have the patience to wait another 50 years,” says Ma Guoli, Deputy Chairman of LeSport – the sports arm of internet company LeEco, which owns the global broadcast rights to the Chinese Super League.

“There is definitely a bubble now; the question is how we can control this kind of investment to find the best team to work in Chinese football. I hope that there will be more and more professional people who really love football and know how to develop it in China. So 2030 is the right time for the World Cup in China.”

Whether China can reach its goal of winning the World Cup is another question. “It’s unrealistic. You can’t say from where they are now to say within the next ten or fifteen years they are going to win a World Cup – it’s not going to happen,” says former England footballer Mark Wright.

“That’s not being disrespectful, that’s just a fact. If you talk about 30 years when you start to educate children and then get the right people, coaches and education, certainly it’s possible to host a World Cup. But to actually go on and win one – this is a big ask and it will take a hell of a lot of hard work between now and 30 years’ time.”

This article first appeared in the Autumn 2016 issue of Host City magazine. It was based on exclusive interviews by Host City and panel discussions at World Football Forum 2016

Alisports (Alibaba Sports Group) has launched World Online Running Alliance (WORA) to tap into the growing popularity of road running through Apps, associations, events, sponsors and operators. The alliance seeks to unite running fans by integrating these five different elements. 

According to DaZhong Zhang, CEO of Alisports, WORA is both a ‘trend-setter and game-changer’.

Alisports has signed a contract with global sport and entertainment agency CSM, who will act as the global strategic partner of WORA. CSM says it will help bring more international events to China and assist WORA in becoming an international road running association.

Road running is growing in popularity in China. In 2015, 134 marathon and related events were registered with the Chinese Athletic Association, representing a 160 per cent growth on the previous year. 84 per cent of provinces held one or more of these events.

“It is this unquestioned popularity that Alisports is looking to seize upon through the implementation of WORA,” CSM says.

100 million running enthusiasts had already signed up in July and WORA’s ambition is to increase this by 50 per cent. Helping achieve this target are the group of members which includes running Apps like Codoon, The Joy Run, Ledongli Hupu Running, Tenmini, Run Again and iHeHa. 

WORA aims to deliver the most effective platform by attracting sponsors, funding and resources, through which it can provide more technical servers and operators. 

“All of this helps Alisports deliver on its long-term objective of making sports accessible and enjoyable for all,” says CSM.

A series of events called ‘WO.RUN’ (‘I Run’) began in July, aiming to integrate online and offline formats. More than 30 WO.RUN events are taking place across China, attended by 30 different Olympic champions including Ruolin Chen, Man Zhong and Liuyang Jiao. 

Runners are able to log their runs online, either from one of the official events or a run of their own, and by doing so will be rewarded with points. These points will translate into savings on purchases made on Alibaba, which is China’s largest online retailer and the owner of Alisports.
 

The worldwide rise of digital media is concurrent with the growth of the middle class – and nowhere is this more evident than in China. Millennials are consuming content primarily through digital media, and their appetite for sport is immense. China's investments in sports and entertainment will be a key theme of Host City 2016, the largest meeting of cities and cross-sector events, which takes place in Glasgow on 21 and 22 November.
The distribution of sports content in China is being driven largely by internet companies. The long and growing list of online companies in China involved in the sports market includes Wanda Group, Tencent, Sina Sports, and PPTV. Two of the most recent and nimblest arrivals on the scene are Alisports and LeSports, the leaders of which shared their ideas with Host City at World Football Forum.

Alisports’ disruptive innovation 
Alibaba Group amassed a US$200bn fortune primarily by connecting global buyers with the Chinese supply chain. But the company realised there was a large missing piece from its giant online jigsaw. 
Wang Dong, Vice President of Alisports says, “In order to complete its ecosystem, sports is one of the elements initially they missed and they want to put this last puzzle piece right there to complete this whole situation.” 
In December 2015, Alibaba’s newly formed “E-Auto” connected car brand signed an eight-year Presenting Partnership with the FIFA Club World Cup. 
“This nine month old company signed a deal with the FIFA Club World Cup as really part of the way to make its presence felt,” Wang Dong tells Host City. 
“By aggressively being involved in the world sports arena, the presence of China will be strongly felt.”
In April 2016, Alibaba Group launched its dedicated sports brand, Alisports, to tap into the growing market opportunity. 
“I think the overall environment of the sports industry is getting stronger and stronger. And overall we see that, given the boost of economy of China and around the world, the sports industry is certainly a way to reach out more,” says Wang Dong.
Private sector investment in China is running in tandem with a massive government drive to boost sports. “I think that given that we have a very football-loving President Mr Xi, showing leadership there, all the elements are on the table – and this is a way to really find out more business opportunities.”
Alisports will use its online platform and connections not only to broadcast existing events but also to launch new innovative formats. 
“We are acting as a service provider, with the eplatform for everybody to launch their business on. And also we do our own sports activities as well by operating events, by running events and by actually being closely in touch with associations around the world to, if you will, be a little bit disruptive, to create some new events, formats and leagues and regulations, to attract the younger crowd. 
“It could be three-a-side or five-a-side street football or basketball – a bit different to the traditional leagues that include more people.” 

LeSports – accessing users through sports
LeSports is the sports brand of China’s largest online video company LeEco, broadcasting online for mobile, for OTT (over-the-top) TV and laptop.
“LeSports is maybe the most ambitious sports company in China,” Ma Guoli, Deputy Chairman of LeSports tells Host City. “We are concentrating not only on the media but also events and products – everything related to sports.” 
LeSports won the broadcasting rights in China for three matches of the International Champions Cup, including a match between Manchester United and Manchester City in the National “Bird’s Nest” Stadium on 25 July. 
LeSports owns the online broadcasting rights in China to the qualifying rounds of 2018 World Cup. The company is also investing in businesses outside the People’s Republic of China, having bought the media rights in Hong Kong for the Premier League and the World Cup in 2018. 
“We have our own platform in Hong Kong – so we telecast it ourselves and also sublicense some rights to local TV platforms. And we have subsidiaries in the US but we are just getting started there.”
More than 40 sports disciplines are broadcast on LeSports. “We’ve got a joint venture with Lagardere Sports Asia; for the future we would like to do more partnerships.
“In terms of investment, at the stage mostly we prefer to buy. To get a joint venture with an existing sport organisation is not easy. Because if you are the organiser you like to sell the rights – it’s better than to joint venture.”
Competition between digital platforms in China is strong, he says. “For the new media platform, a view means a user and a user means a potential consumer. The key point for the digital platform is to get more and more users. And they need media rights to get more users.” 

Why digital is booming in China
Ma Guoli says China presents immediate opportunities for internet broadcasting that do not exist in the western world. “In Europe and the US, I believe traditional TV has no competition from online in the next ten years, mainly because they own many rights until 2030. 
Digital media companies are growing much more quickly in China, Ma Guoli says, because there is no competition for TV from commercial broadcasters. 
“In China we lost the opportunity to develop the pay TV business. It is such an important source of revenue for sports organisations. 
“Because in China there is only one TV network for sports, people need more – then online companies have a chance. If people want to watch golf but they can’t get it on traditional TV, now the online companies own rights. 
“The technology is developing so quickly today, so new media platforms can provide more content to the people, who can then choose a platform to select an event that would like to watch. It’s a combination of traditional TV and new media platform – that’s the role that digital platforms play in China. 
“And the technology is so good now; with the OTT TV set, the quality of the picture is better than cable TV.”
According to Cai Yanjiang, Director ABU Sports, Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the rise of new media is an incentive for broadcasters to develop their own digital media broadcasting. 
“CCTV started their new media before 2000, but unfortunately CNTV – the digital media platform for sports broadcasting – didn’t work very well. CCTV can develop to make better digital broadcasting of sports events on their own platforms,” he tells Host City.
The national broadcaster is aware of the changing consumer demands. Zhang Xing, Deputy Controller of CCTV Sports says, “We are seeing that the older generation of viewers still uses television sets, but younger views use their phones. We need to guarantee that we still broadcast events on TV but we need to give more importance to social media.”

Disruption across Asia
Of course, the phenomenon of digital media transformation is not restricted to China. “Disruption is happening everywhere,” says Cai Yanjiang.
“For me it is good when western companies rush into the Asia Pacific region with new technology and help broadcasters in a new way through the internet and internet plus – that is something that the Chinese broadcasters are adopting. 
“And more and more internet companies are taking over the dominant role. In the past it was CCTV dominating, but it’s actually changing now in China. That will also happen in surrounding countries, in south Asia, it has already happened in Japan and Korea, where traditional TV is facing a great challenge from internet companies. 
“So from my perspective, serving for the Asian broadcasting union, we’ve got a lot of underdeveloped nations and they don’t have enough facilities or logistic support and telecom standard won’t support them to do internet broadcasting at the moment. 
“But they are building up, so I would advise our members, the broadcasters in Asia Pacific region, to go forward, to take up the new way of internet broadcasting, because we all know that digital is the trend in the broadcasting world – not only in football but in everything. 
“That is good; that will set a model for our members in underdeveloped countries and state broadcasters to follow. That’s undergoing now in countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – everywhere they are developing new digital broadcasting solutions.”
However, Asian broadcasters need investment to undergo digital transformation. “What they don’t possess is funds, because in the past traditional television got government funding. Now they need to find a new way to develop their own digital broadcasting. At the same time, telecom companies and digital media companies – especially international ones – are trying to enter the market.
“There is huge potential for example in Myanmar, in the Philippines – everything is changing fast. So although at the moment it’s not really developed, but we can see in the future they have potential.
“In some countries traditional television and new media work together very well; in other countries they are trying to kill each other.”
According to Dong Wang of Alisports, digital media companies have the potential to overtake domestic broadcasters within five years. 
“The faster the domestic broadcasters realise how important digital media and platforms are to them and their government and local companies, if they invest in digital media then they can win over in the future because they have government support. 
“But if they are not doing anything on this, when the foreign investors, telecom companies or digital broadcasters enter the market, there will be no room for domestic broadcasters any more. 
“It can be a great leap to transform from the traditional broadcasting way to the digital way. It will just take five years or so and the whole thing will be changed – so it’s like a race.”
The question is – who’s going to win? “It’s really hard to say. It depends on the vision and understanding of governments,” he says. 
“Governments must support their own domestic broadcasters by setting up some regulations – even state laws to protect broadcasting. It’s quite important for the improvement of local companies. Otherwise they will be taken over by all those internationals.”

This article was based on exclusive interviews with Host City and panel discussions at World Football Forum 2016