Suning teams up with Migu on sports business

Chinese e-commerce giant Suning Co Ltd announced on Wednesday a strategic partnership with Migu Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China Mobile Communications Corp, to gear up its expansion in the sports business.

Under the partnership, Suning and Migu will conduct whole industrial-chain cooperation on the sports sector, including broadcasting sporting events, content production, smart hardware, big data application, 5G multimedia technological innovation and application, and sports facilities.

The two sides that they will also jointly work on retail, catering, movie and television, entertainment, music, internet of vehicles and cloud services.

Mi Xin, vice-president of Suning Sports, said the company aimed to meet consumers' growing needs for upgrading consumption.

"Suning is now shifting the focus from retail to the internet sector. We will provide tangible goods and high-quality cultural products and services as well."

"The partnership will leverage Suning PPTV's core competence in content production and operation. With Migu's massive user base across the nation, we will be able to better distribute the content and serve the users."

Migu's Vice General Manager Yan Zhongwei agreed, adding that the partnership will picture a new sports blueprint for both sides.

"Suning Sports now owns the copyright of almost all top soccer games. With offerings ranging from artificial intelligence technological support to abundant sporting events, we will create a new sports ecology that has a better understanding of both technologies and users." Yan said.

The partnership came after Migu announced in May that it had become a partner of China Central Television in broadcasting the World Cup on digital media and telecommunication channels.

Migu claimed since the World Cup kicked off in mid-June, people have spent hours watching the broadcasts on the Migu platform, with more than 100 million views a day.

During the past few years, China has witnessed stunning growth in the sports industry linked to digital and online merchandise.

Statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center back up this internet sports boom.

Figures from the CNNIC revealed that among the 772 million Chinese netizens, 97.5 percent were mobile phone users, which provides a larger base for the evolving online sports and fitness industry.

Government policy is also fueling the sports sector. Chinese authorities have announced a national fitness plan, aimed to cope with an aging population.
The blueprint showed that spending on sports and fitness in China is expected to expand to 1.5 trillion yuan ($225 billion) in 2020.