In Q2 2016, China’s mobile sports information platforms sustained a steady increase in the total number of active users. People’s using behaviors on mobile terminal helped the applications of mobile sports information acquire new users fast. The traditional comprehensive sports information platforms embraced the joint development together with the more in-depth application of vertical sports information.
Analysys data shows that Dongqiudi.com, Sports.sina.com.cn and Hupu.com accounted for 63.0%, 51.3% and 47.9% of the coverage rate of active users, respectively, ranking the top 3 on the China’s mobile sports information market. The percentage of coverage obviously revealed that the concentration of mobile sports information market was relatively high, and most of sports information users followed with interest the leading platforms; besides, the relatively professional vertical information platforms for football, basketball, etc. also attracted a great number of sports information users. In terms of coverage of active users on the mobile sports information market, the TOP3 applications covered two categories of platforms: vertical sports information and comprehensive sports information. Dongqiudi.com, ranking the first, was founded in December 2013. Through over two years of fast development, it has become a leader of professional football information platforms on mobile terminal. The depth and width of information as well as the football community forum have attracted a great number of fans in China. Meanwhile, Dongqiudi.com also won great popularity of many capitals. Recently, round C financing in excess of RMB350 million has been close to completion. Sports.sina.com.cn, as the portal sports website with the high seniority, also maintained more than 50% coverage of active users. Without outperformance in the sports coverage category, Sports.sina.com.cn covered a great quantity of sports events. Therefore, it is also one of major choices for general public to view sports information. Hupu.com is a relatively senior sports forum, with a certain depth of reporting in terms of basketball and football. Especially in the basketball information contents, it also gathered numerous fans on the strength of its more comprehensive and insightful platform for comprehensive sports information.
Analysys insight reveals that, in the first half of 2016, the sports information market saw the more remarkable growth in both users and users’ viscosity in aspect of vertical sports information. On the one hand, On the one hand, the sports information users are inclined to choose the vertical sports information platforms because they boast more abundant sports information; for example, Dongqiudi.com features huger quantity of information compared with the comprehensive sports information platforms. Such information can meet the fans’ needs for information from the depth or width perspective. On the other hand, the community forums among the vertical sports information platforms also gathered numerous senior fans. They created some in-depth UGC contents to achieve the good interaction, and ensured that the users’ viscosity in these sports application was enhanced constantly. Thirdly, the relatively professional shopping malls of sports equipment not only met the offline needs of users for professional sports equipment but also brought a cashing channel for the platforms.
Analysys believes that the future development trend of mobile sports information market is: Firstly, in the aspect of information contents, PGC excellent contents will be the foundation for platforms to attract numerous users, and the in-depth sports reports and comments can attract interest of numerous users to platforms, and further drive the yield of UGC contents; more UGC contents are exactly the cornerstone for platforms to create a favorable community environment and stimulate the participation of numerous users, and therefore drive the growth of active users on the sports information platforms effectively. Secondly, in the aspect of information forms, most of sports information is currently demonstrated in the form of words plus photos; however, recently, dynamic photos in gif and short video were increasingly applied in sports information. As most of sports information is concerned with the coverage of sports events, such dynamic contents as “scoring a goal”, “slam dunk”, etc. were an attraction for user browsing. In future, dynamic photos in gif and short video are expected to be widely applied in the sports information, and thus create better user experience for users.
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