00:00It turns out many football fans in China are watching the World Cup on their smartphones.
00:05Social media company Xiaohongshu, also known as Red Note, has an agreement to show the tournament's matches.
00:11Here's our correspondent Siobhan McCall with all the details. Siobhan.
00:14Thanks, Juliet. Yes, Xiaohongshu users are able to watch all 104 matches at the World Cup for free.
00:21The social media app has a sub-licensing agreement with the rights-holders China Media Group.
00:27It can live-stream games, show replays and show highlights reels.
00:32Well, it's been a big hit with fans so far.
00:34On the first day of the tournament, Xiaohongshu reported its live-stream audience was 55 times higher than ever before.
00:42And fan interactions reached 90 million in the first three days.
00:47Well, the total impressions of World Cup and football-related content have hit more than 2.7 billion.
00:55Xiaohongshu has traditionally been a lifestyle platform with beauty and cosmetics the largest category on the app.
01:02And most of the users are female.
01:04But more gaming and sports content is helping to attract more male users to the platform.
01:08And they make up around 60% of the World Cup live-stream views.
01:14The app was already growing in popularity with football fans.
01:17Its user base interested in the sport has reached more than 100 million in the past 12 months,
01:23whilst discussions related to football content more than doubled year on year.
01:28And as well as increasing Xiaohongshu's daily active users,
01:32the World Cup live-streaming is also part of a trend towards digital-first viewing.
01:37The time difference with North America means fans in China are more likely to watch at home and dip in
01:42and out of games.
01:44Well, Crystal Li Jiang is Director of Outreach and Engagement in the Department of Media and Communications at City University,
01:51Hong Kong.
01:53Xiaohongshu has been stretching its audience range for years.
01:59So before this, I think they have been live-casting some other spots.
02:04So this is one of the steps to engage wider audiences and the younger generation.
02:10How does sport like the World Cup going out on social media change traditional viewing habits?
02:18I think now because people use less time and they do this interstitial uses.
02:26So it means that, you know, on social media they can consume a relatively shorter footage.
02:31And also they turn their engagement to a more active role.
02:35So now there's a lot of fans doing, like, you know, fan art and also personal commentary.
02:41So they may tape their video, tape their games,
02:45and then add their own personal commentary as their own user-generated content.
02:51Do you think the days of people, you know, going to a venue to watch a sports event on a
02:56big screen,
02:57are those days coming to an end?
03:00I think it's not.
03:03We actually can see different forms of engagement, different forms of consumption.
03:08Actually, I asked around some of my soccer fans.
03:11They still consume the big platform, like, you know, watch television or watch those live streaming platforms.
03:19But on the other hand, I would say younger users and female users,
03:24they may engage more, like, you know, social watching, social viewing.
03:29So, for example, yesterday the goalkeeper from a couple of vendors, right, got a hit on social media.
03:37So people were talking about him online in China, talking about, like, you know, how great he performed last night.
03:44So people are enjoying talking about this kind of, like, anecdotes during the workup period.
03:50There's obviously a big time difference between China and North America,
03:54and a lot of the games are on in the early hours of the morning in China.
03:57How does that change viewing habits?
04:02Oh, yeah, I think that's one thing, right?
04:04If we only have the conventional mode, people actually have to get up early, turn their TV,
04:11but now they can't watch television on their way to school, on their way to work.
04:17So as I said, you know, they can use those scattered time to look at and re-watch all the
04:22games
04:22and also enjoy all the discussion on shopping show.
04:26So this is much easier than using conventional viewing mode.
04:30Why do you think younger users connect more with these personal content videos?
04:36I think it's the idea of social viewing.
04:40So they have their different perspective.
04:43So all the commentary, they may comment on, like, you know, there's something inside of the game, right?
04:52But they actually want to share something more personal.
04:56So, for example, they can talk about, like, you know, the goalkeeper, as I just mentioned,
05:00like, you know, how brilliant he was.
05:02But if you just compare the cluster of two teams, you know, spam versus capable, right?
05:11There's a huge differences.
05:13So people like this kind of anecdote.
05:15They're actually beyond some of the common discussion within, like, you know, the commentary session in sports.
05:25And do you think this is mainly a short-term traffic opportunity around the World Cup for Xiaohongshu,
05:31or is it an insight into their longer-term strategy?
05:36I think this is definitely part of their long-term strategy.
05:40So as I mentioned, Xiaohongshu has been actively expanding its audience base,
05:46trying to engage more male audiences, different age groups, different cultural backgrounds.
05:53And recently, like, early today, there's a piece of news in Hong Kong circulating,
05:59saying that Xiaohongshu actually is going for the IPO in Hong Kong by the end of this month.
06:05So I think definitely they want to add some weights in their IPO process
06:10by casting a much diversified audience base here.
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