This week in Chinese esports: Guangzhou, China Unicom

As part of our partnership with China Electronic Athletics, we’re now bringing you the biggest headlines from the esports industry in China every week. This week in Chinese esports saw the release of a three-year development plan for esports in Guangzhou, and China Unicom sign a strategic cooperation agreement with Tencent Esports.

We also have a twice-weekly newsletter that informs you of every significant happening in the business and industry side of esports, the ESI Dispatch, please feel free to subscribe here.

The Publicity Department of Guangzhou Municipal Committee release ‘The three-year-development plan of Guangzhou esports industry (2019-2021)’

On Aug. 30, The Publicity Department of Guangzhou Municipal Committee, accompanied with multiple municipal administrations, held a press conference to announce the release of ‘Three-year-development plan of Guangzhou esports industry (2019-2021)’.

The plan will see the government utilise top esports companies to produce esports products which have both social and economic benefits. The government will also introduce and develop domestic and international esports teams and tournaments in Guangzhou. Regarding the details of the introduction plan, more than three top esports venues and more than five comprehensive esports industrial parks will be set up with the aim of becoming the esports centre of China in 2021.

China Electronic Athletics says: Interestingly, Pony Ma, the CEO of Tencent, stated that Tencent will fully support Shanghai to become the international esports capital when he spoke at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019.

Guangzhou, Shanghai and Xi’an all released similar policies to support whole esports industrial chain. For this developing industrial chain, it seems that no one knows how to distribute the interests in the chain.  Therefore, it may be an appropriate idea to include all segments in the chain.

Due to the lack of esports culture in the city, the first one who can develop local esports cultural ecosystem may have the initiative to compete for the limited esports resources. At least, the feedback from local esports fans will help investors to evaluate themselves when they are developing local esports culture.

China Unicom signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tencent Esports

On August 27th, China Unicom signed a strategic agreement with Tencent Esports. The two companies will cooperate to construct the ‘5G esports laboratory’. According to the agreement, they will collaboratively explore the application of 5G technology in the esports scene, which will promote the development of esports technology.

In June, China Unicom was the first telecom operator in China to join the Tencent Esports Technology Union, which can be considered as the beginning of this cooperation. Currently, 5G has already been applied in internet broadcasting and live streaming.

China Electronic Athletics says: Due to the lack of competition in China Unicom’s 4G business, the cooperation with Tencent Esports is a chance for China Unicom to turn back the situation and create a unique advantage for its 5G business if they can provide an excellent experience for mobile esports fans.

In general, the pre-condition for this win-win cooperation is the growing inelastic demand for mobile esports in China.

Contact China Electronic Athletics:
Wechat public account: china_ea
Contact Name: Xiang Shi
Email: [email protected]

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