The battle among Wanda, Vanke and Guangzhou Evergrande in Sports

The development of China’s sports industry is constantly accelerating. According to statistics, the total value of China’s sports industry is about 313.6 billion RMB. The development of Sports industry contributes to about 0.6% of China’s GDP. The average increasing rate of GDP made by sports industry in the recent 5 years is 16% which is far higher than that of the whole country’s GDP.

The strongest pushing power of those prosperity lies in the fact that more and more huge real estate companies in make investment in sports. In China, sports industry has become the most popular target for real estate bosses to shoot money. The battle among companies like Wanda, Vanke and Guangzhou Evergrande is becoming more and more intense. However, who will become the winner? At first, we could make some analysis on those three candidates.

Wanda Group was created in 1988. In 2014, the total asset of Wanda reached 534.1 billion RMB, and the company’s annual revenue was about 240 billion RMB. During the recent years, Wanda began to engage in sports. Wanda established football club FC Beijing Wanda in 2012 and purchased 20% stock rights of Atletico Madrid with nearly 45 million Euro in 2014. And in February, Wanda finished the acquisition of Infront. What’s more, Wanda announced to be the No.1 one company in the field of sports industry in the world.

Compared with Wanda, Vanke mainly engaged in long-distance race and bicycle race. The company which was established in May 1984 had organized many mass sports activity and become welcomed by Chinese sports fans. The revenue of Vanke in 2014 is about 215 billion RMB.

Guangzhou Evergrande is another China’s real estate giant which invest in sports. The total asset of Evergrande is 475 billion RMB, and the annual revenue in 2014 is 131.5 billion RMB. In 2010, Energrande announced to become the owner of Guangzhou Football Club. Now, football, volleyball, and badminton have become the three major investment field of Evergrande.

Actually, the investment in sports will pay no concrete profit to real estate companies. However, Wanda, Vanke and Guangzhou Evergrande can benefit from their investment in another three aspects: the elevating of brand cognitive, the positive public relation, and the cooperation with media and entertainment circles.

However, the development of China’s sports marketing is undergoing a transition. O2O is playing a more and more important role. Only those who can establish an integrated O2O system can be the final winner. The age for traditional sports marketing had passed. With the help of O2O, companies could gain more mobile clients which will contribute a lot to the development of them. At the meantime, for customers, O2O can maximize the value of service provided by companies.