Internet giants snapped up behind the e-sports team
The number of users reached 484 million in the first half of the year. The e-sports industry will reach 140 billion yuan in market revenue this year
Recently, Kuaishou and Weibo respectively announced the acquisition of the professional team of Glory of the Kings. Prior to this, there were also many Internet companies deploying the e-sports industry. They enter this popular industry by hosting events, IP authorization, hardware peripherals, etc. According to reports, the e-sports industry is currently in an explosive period. It is estimated that by the end of 2020, the number of e-sports users in Mainland China will reach 520 million and market revenue will reach about 140 billion yuan.
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Kuaishou and Weibo acquire professional e-sports teams
On August 24th, at the Global E-sports Leadership Summit and Tencent E-sports Annual Conference, Weibo officially announced the acquisition of the 2020KPL King of Glory Spring and King of Glory World Champions Cup double champion "Dolphin Head King Glory Team" (TS for short) Team), and retain all the champions. The future team will be named "WB.TS", and will be unveiled with the Big Eyes LOGO.
Weibo said that its official data shows that the current Weibo e-sports team and players’ presence coverage is over 95%. As of July 2020, the number of KPL fans in the Weibo ecosystem has reached 47.44 million, and the KPL spring competition has more than 101 related topics. Billion, and the cumulative broadcast of related videos reached 1.37 billion. During the 2020 King of Glory World Championships, the popularity of Weibo e-sports reached a new high, with 74 hot searches related to the event and 31.51 million live views of the finals, setting a new Weibo record.
On the same day, Kuaishou completed the acquisition of the YTG team, and the YTG e-sports club officially changed its name to KS.YTG e-sports club, and officially entered the King Glory Professional League. Kuaishou said that it will continue to make efforts to build a professional e-sports system to create a closed-loop gaming e-sports ecosystem. At the same time, Kuaishou welcomes young people who love e-sports to join actively. Kuaishou will provide professional and systematic life training guarantee for e-sports players to help realize their e-sports dreams.
In January this year, at the Glory of Kings E-sports Strategy Conference, Kuaishou announced that it became the official partner of Glory of Kings professional events and obtained the live broadcast rights of KPL events. In July, the Tongjiapu E-sports Club, founded by Kuaishou's head game anchor "Shepherd Boy", officially won the PEL (Peace Elite Professional League) S2 season seat. At the same time, all PEL (Peace Elite Professional League) teams and players collectively settled in Kuaishou, further enriching the professional e-sports content on the site.
Market direction
Layout of e-sports industry on JD.com and b-station
There are currently 16 clubs in the league, among which branded corporate clubs have occupied half of the places, including JD Gaming, Suning E-sports Club, BLG team (station b), TES team (Taobo Sports), LNG team (Li Ning) , RW team (ASUS), as well as the Weibo and Kuaishou team joined this time.
In addition to acquiring teams, Internet giants are also deploying the e-sports industry in many aspects. Recently, JD.com registered a number of "Jingdong E-sports" trademarks, involving international classifications such as scientific equipment, education and entertainment, fitness equipment, and advertising sales.
On August 14, station b announced the distribution of the live broadcast copyright of the League of Legends S10 Global Finals (Mainland China). On August 17, the three live broadcast platforms of Penguin E-sports, Huya and Douyu announced that they were authorized. Some analysts believe that the cost of this distribution at station b may be as high as 1 billion yuan, which can basically cover the cost of obtaining copyright fees.
Hardware manufacturers launch e-sports related products
In the industry, many hardware manufacturers are also catering to the trend of e-sports by launching related products, including gaming e-sports hardware equipment and electronic products. For example, Lenovo recently launched the "Savior Gaming Phone", which is designed for game lovers from appearance to performance, including the next-generation gaming phone architecture, central engine, which can bring a fully symmetrical immersive experience, and is equipped with a large 5000mAh battery. Supports 90W fast charging; adopts a 20-megapixel anchor-level pop-up center-mounted front camera design, which can also be broadcast live while playing games, and has conducted in-depth cooperation with Douyu and Huya, which can bring a live broadcast effect like PC.
BOE also stated on the investor interactive platform that it is actively expanding the e-sports market. The company's notebook gaming product line involves FHD~UHD /120Hz~240Hz. At present, it has fully imported first-line brand customers and domestic gaming brands, many of which are joint development/world premiere products. Display gaming products have currently mass-produced 2 gaming products, and a number of new products are under development. In the future, we will continue to invest resources to vigorously promote the development of high refresh rate, large screen and high resolution products to meet the needs of the market and customers.
Industry Watch
26 million new users during the epidemic
The e-sports industry is developing rapidly and the market space is huge. The "Report on China's Game Industry for January-June 2020" pointed out that in the first half of this year, my country's e-sports industry developed rapidly and realized e-sports game marketing revenue of 71.936 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54.69%. E-sports users also continued to grow, reaching 484 million, a year-on-year increase of 9.94%. According to a research report recently released by the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, it is estimated that by the end of 2020, e-sports users in Mainland China will reach 520 million, and market revenue will reach about 140 billion yuan. By 2022, China (Mainland) e-sports users will increase to 550 million, and e-sports market revenue will exceed 160 billion yuan.
Since e-sports was accepted as an official sport by the country in 2003, the e-sports industry has gradually emerged in China. Although it has experienced some twists and turns in the middle, it has shown a steady growth overall. Especially after 2008, favorable policies for my country's e-sports industry have frequently appeared. After 2013, Tencent e-sports, Suning, and Alibaba Sports have deployed e-sports channels, which opened the prelude to China's e-sports investment and financing boom.
This year, the speed of new e-sports companies has accelerated significantly, on the one hand, it is affected by the epidemic. According to relevant data from Tencent e-sports, during the epidemic, there were about 26 million new e-sports users in China. In the face of the epidemic that has swept the world, traditional sports events including the NBA, the Premier League, and the Champions League have pressed the "pause button" one after another. E-sports has become one of the few sports events that can be held as scheduled, showing strong vitality.
According to the company's data, there are currently 18,000 e-sports-related companies in my country, of which 16,000 are still operating. Since 2013, the number of registered e-sports companies in my country has shown geometric growth, reaching a peak of 5,419 in 2019, entering the "golden age" of China's e-sports development. From 288 in 2013 to 5419 in 2019, the market volume has grown nearly 19 times in 6 years.
This group of articles / our reporter Wen Jing
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E-sports talent gap is large
Last year, among the 13 new professions released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other three departments, there were two professions related to e-sports, e-sports operator and e-sports player. The "Analysis Report on the Employment Situation of E-sports Operators and E-sports Players" released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security shows that currently less than 15% of e-sports positions in my country are in a state of manpower saturation. The demand for talents is nearly 2 million, and the demand for e-sports operators is nearly 1.5 million. Due to the lack of a talent training system and insufficient talent accumulation in the industry, the scarcity of talents will become a bottleneck facing the development of the emerging industry of e-sports.
The report shows that the rapid and sustainable development of the e-sports industry requires high-level talent as support. Although the domestic e-sports industry chain has initially taken shape, compared with the e-sports market of developed countries abroad, the domestic e-sports industry has developed in a short time and lacks operational talents. Especially for high-level, high-level, high-quality e-sports players, e-sports team coaches, e-sports data analysis, e-sports project sparring and other related positions, the demand for talents is becoming more and more urgent. However, at present, the domestic e-sports industry has gradually established a multi-level e-sports education system for academic education, vocational education, and online education to promote the training of e-sports talents.
Correspondingly, e-sports talents are well paid. CCTV reports show that the annual salary of professional players can reach US$50,000 to US$250,000, not including the distribution of bonuses for victory after the game. However, the work intensity of professional players is also very high. Some professional players said that they spend more than ten hours in training every day; others said, “It’s not just a game or a professional player. It's not the salary of a professional player. At the beginning, the monthly salary may be only about 1,000 yuan."