I stumbled upon a study produced by CIC which is a research and consulting firm in China. The white paper’s purpose was “to provide an overview of Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) for the mainland China sports industry with a categorical focus on basketball and football (soccer).” It is a comprehensive study though (and I say this with all due respect) the depth of information is there, I cannot help but wonder if there was more that could have been discovered by the study. I believe most of the truths were those which one would have hypothesized, however with that said, it does put some very interesting numbers on the impact of blogging and bulletin boards on sports marketing within China. Some of the key findings of the study are discussed herein.

“Nike led buzz among the 14 tracked brands with over 42% share of voice.”

This is not really such a surprise as we all know just how savvy the marketing team at Nike is and how well they have been able to make their brand transcend borders since Michael Jordan’s iconic rise and now with the two of the largest Chinese international sports stars in Yao Ming and Yi Jian Lian on their roster again I would am not so surprised. However what I do feel is interesting is how highly Michael Jordan still ranks on the buzz meter. Jordan still ranks fifth behind Ming, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and Yi Jian Lian.

“Group Reporting of live matches on BBS is similar to recent development of Twitter “sports group” (i.e. “Twitter Super Bowl”) in the West.”

This is definitely interesting and somewhat surprising in that at first glance you might think that those in the East have access to technology, we sometimes forget how restricted the Internet access really is. During my time in Hong Kong I traveled to the PRC and to use a computer in an Internet cafe you literally have to give up your Passport. So it is not that live reporting has taken off that is worth noting, it is that there seems to be a market opportunity for someone in China to create a dedicated sports Twitter like application.

“The recent launch of ‘Nike iD’ in China is an example of how a product can ‘ride the wave’ of consumer net culture”

This I found really interesting actually. It is not that Nike has expanded a semi-successful North American program to China that I found so interesting, it was the reason behind the headline. For years, Chinese “sneaker heads” have been personalizing shoes on their own and posting their pictures online on bulletin boards and other sites. As blogs started to take off and there became a real opportunity to showcase talent, Nike took notice and brought their program to the Mainland. It has worked and as we learned earlier, Nike has by far the most “buzz” in the sports world of China.

A few other quick facts worth noting:

- There are 215 million Internet users in China
- 74.6 million regular BBS users in China
- 49.4 million Chinese bloggers
- 296,017 individuals were responsible for over 4 million (4,311,758) posts on various blogs and bulletin boards.

Data contained herein is personal opinion based upon the report produced by CIC. The charts above are copyright of CIC.