China: Potential Market

China is the fastest economic growing country, and it is the second largest economic country after the United States. The sports industry in China is one of the most important industries to support the economic growth of this country. The Chinese government established the five-year plan to boost the value of the sports industry to accelerate the economic growth. Also, the Chinese sports industry is the potential market for the foreign sports industries and the sports related industries.

Yao Ming

Table tennis and badminton represent the sports in China because the Chinese teams of these two sports won a lot at the Olympics Games and the world championships. However, basketball is also popular sports in China. Actually, China was the third oldest country that plays basketball after the US and Canada, and China became the most populated country of basketball. Since Yao Ming joined NBA in 2002, the popularity of basketball has been increasing. NBA realized that China was the great market for the NBA revenue. They expanded the TV network to let Chinese people be able to watch the games. NBA also found partners to sell the NBA goods in China. In addition, NBA’s marketing in China brought another business opportunities for other companies. The NBA’s China tour was held in 2007, NBA made partnerships with 11 companies. It helped NBA to expand the brand throughout in China. At the same time, 11companies also succeeded to expand their market in China.

X Games Asia in China

Recently, the Chinese government put the energy to develop the action sports in China. They positioned the action sports as the one of the biggest thing for the growth of sports in China. X Games brought totally different experiences to Chinese people. That event was the combination of sports, music, and culture. The action sports were the big impact for the young generation in China. So, the Chinese government built the world-largest skateboard park in Shanghai to encourage young people to play action sports. However, most of skaters in the park are foreigners. It seems taking more time to develop the popularity of the action sports in China.

After the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, the economic crisis affects the growth of the sports industry in China. However, the sports related industries, such as apparel industry, are still growing. The number of the participating to the fitness gym is also growing. Therefore, China still has the potential market for the sports industry because of their huge population and the economic growth.