A sports-themed show in a Beijing mall forward of the World Cup kickoff on June 11, 2026.
CNBC | Yin Hon Chow
BEIJING — Lengthy gone are the times when catching World Cup soccer video games on the go meant shopping for a transportable mini tv set.
As an alternative, customers in China can simply whip out their telephones. Soccer is fashionable in China, even when the nationwide staff hasn’t certified for the World Cup since 2002.
“We principally watch on smartphones, little or no on TV,” mentioned Faye Jin. “The TV at house is mainly not used. Possibly to look at some competitions we’ll activate the TV on the final minute, however more often than not it is on our telephones.”
This 12 months, Chinese language social media firm Xiaohongshu received the rights to stream the World Cup video games at no cost to all customers. The app, additionally referred to as Little Purple E-book, is typically in comparison with Meta’s Instagram.
Xiaohongshu’s deal is a strategic partnership with state-owned China Media Group, which sealed broadcast rights lower than a month earlier than the World Cup kicked off final week. The corporate runs China Central Tv (CCTV), which has each cell and good TV apps that permit subscribers watch matches and replays ad-free.
CNBC spot checks discovered that locals in Beijing are usually not as keen to move out to bars for World Cup video games this 12 months, and as a substitute comply with matches on-line, typically at residence.
The video games this 12 months are likely to fall in the midst of the evening or throughout morning working hours as a result of 12-hour-plus time distinction. Interviews are translated from the unique Mandarin Chinese language.
“If my associates have an interest within the World Cup they are going to positively watch at residence,” mentioned Xu Wang, who works at Absolut Bar in a tourist-heavy a part of Beijing. “It is laborious to discover a appropriate place for folks to assemble at the moment of evening, particularly as a result of everyone seems to be unfold out throughout the town.”
The shift to cell units builds on a digital-first pattern in China.
Throughout the World Cup in 2022, China already accounted for practically half of all hours of viewing on digital and social platforms globally, in response to FIFA.
Widespread 5G connectivity and comparatively low-priced roaming packages assist. Individuals in China already spend 40% of their day by day cell phone time watching movies, totally on short-video apps comparable to ByteDance’s Douyin, in response to QuestMobile.
To remain up to date on the World Cup matches, Quan Zhao mentioned he scrolls by means of Douyin, and solely plans to look at the previous few video games in full. He is unsure but whether or not he’ll exit to take action.
That additionally displays how robust it’s for Xiaohongshu to capitalize on World Cup streaming to achieve extra customers.
Douyin received streaming rights for the World Cup in 2022, when many individuals in China nonetheless confronted Covid-19 restrictions on gathering and transferring round. This time, Douyin is selling a packed lineup of soccer commentators and creators, together with World Cup-themed AI particular results templates.
Douyin has greater than 1 billion month-to-month lively customers, Questmobile information confirmed, whereas Xiaohongshu had 245.3 million as of March.
A shopping-focused model of Douyin ranked first among the many prime 10 downloaded apps on Apple’s China app retailer as of noon Monday.
CCTV’s app for streaming the World Cup ranked second, whereas China’s official sports activities betting app ranked sixth — and Xiaohongshu ranked ninth.
Chinese language tech firms aren’t simply centered on the home market. Tencent Cloud mentioned Friday that two-thirds of official World Cup broadcasting platforms in Asia Pacific use the corporate’s companies.
The corporate mentioned it is supporting match streaming in 16 areas, together with Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Argentina — the biggest territory for a World Cup ever coated by a Chinese language cloud supplier.
