China's Post-90s Generation Has Become Core Consumers of the New Sport Market

　　Recently, Tencent and Carat co-produced a report titled Interpretation on Teenagers' Cultural Core and Exercise Habits. The report analyzes the value concepts and handling manner of people aged between 15 and 26 (hereinafter referred to "post-90s" because they are basically post-90s) in detail. Different from previous reports on post-90s, this report not only interprets their cultural core, but also makes a summary of the young people's exercise habits and media behavior.

　　In the report, the most notable cultural trends of post-90s are summarized as follows:

　　Unconventional interest, straightforward expression, bold in practice, entertainment spirit

　　These four points are naturally reflected in their exercise habits. Although basketball and football are still preferred for post-90s in online games, they show preference for niche sports and events such as auto racing, billiards, and darts. This "unconventional" choice is based on certain understanding of high threshold sports and the feeling of superiority that "not everyone understands it".

　　Unconventional interest: preferring niche sports

　　In addition to mainstream sports, post-90s show preference for sport events that have fewer spectators and are difficult to understand, such as auto racing, billiards, and darts.

　　Post-90s are passionate and adventurous. They like antagonism, are willing to challenge limits, and express themselves in a straightforward manner. They are not only keen to watch challenging sports, but also willing to experience the exciting of mountaineering, rock climbing, extreme sports. The post-90s believe in the true original experience. Once they find their interests, they will make practice to the extreme. They focus on personal hobbies and refuse to compromise to the reality.

　　Straightforward expression: liking antagonism and challenging limits

　　The young spectators are passionate and adventurous. They are youngsters full of passion. They are not only keen to watch exciting programs, but also willing to experience the exciting of mountaineering, rock climbing, and extreme sports by themselves.

　　The post-90s like exploration while doing sports. They no longer preset any script for life and sports, but enjoy the pleasure of discovering unknown things. They refuse dull things and add a little "entertainment spirit" to everything. They make barrages for entertainment while watching games on the Internet. They use a running app to record their running routes, sometimes the routes present a heart shape. Many popular events have been deployed for post-90s. The purpose is to utilize their innate innovative "entertainment attributes" to change the rigorous style of sport competitions and make them become more fashionable and interesting.

　　Entertainment spirit

　　They refuse dull things and have a little "entertainment spirit" whatever they do.

　　Meanwhile, the new generation of post-90s athletes is on the horizon. The line between athletes and stars become increasingly blurred. For example, the popular "primordial girl" in the Rio Olympics, Fu Yuanhui, appeared in variety shows of major satellite TVs multiple times, and attracted fans as a cross-boundary star. When the traditional concept of "gold medal first" is gradually dispelled, the serious tension of sport competitions is also eliminated by the young people, and professional sports come close to the public. Young people's pattern of consumption towards the sports industry has been transforming to pan-entertainment in watch, experience, and interaction.
 

　　Only properly packaged games can attract post-90s

　　In the appraisal conducted by post-90s, the top three factors they focus most are speech and behavior, dressing, and appearance. They can be summarized as "good-looks club". This appraisal method is naturally applicable to other things. Based on this, the visual packaging of professional sport competitions becomes a shortcut to attract young people.

　　Visual and recreational development is more applicable to some emerging sport events or events whose values have not been explored. Professional sport fans are highly loyal to events they watch for long. Rather than diverting their attention, pan-sport crowds are a good choice.

　　Take the trials of Chinese table tennis team as an example. They may be the highest-level table tennis series in the world, with topical issues such as a world champion defeated by a nobody and replay of the Olympic Games final competition unfolded. However, they fail to receive attention that matches their athlete level.In March this year, Tencent Sports and the Chinese Table Tennis Association jointly built the trials as the matches of "top 12 on the earth".The arena with high-tech feel, on-site fans cheering, and commentary of punster style added a lot of entertainment elements to the match, making professional table tennis match closer to the public.

　　As a national sport, table tennis is less popular to young people than to middle-aged and elderly people. The commercialization and marketability of table tennis matches still need to be further developed. After the match of "top 12 on the earth" was packaged by Tencent Sports by the entertainment means, the pre-sale tickets of the opening match was sold out within a short period of 72 seconds.

　　The event introduced the opening ceremony full of the sense of technology and entertainment and truly built the direct entrance match into a table tennis audio-visual feast. The high attendance at the scene and loud cheering and shouting sound from fans reflect the extraordinary event. The fan dressing, banner ornaments, and well organized cheering make people feel they are in the midst of a show. Obviously, such matches attract younger spectators to watch table tennis matches, and drive the fan economy development for the national sport.

　　Find my way! Sports make me happy

　　Post-90s are rebellious to dogmatism. They advocate self-pursuit under universal standards. The report shows that post-90s are not lack of focus and enthusiasm, but they would like to "find their own ways" and spend their energy on things they love.

　　In the sports field, Matt Powell, a Forbes columnist, once wrote that the younger generation's approach to participate in physical fitness was much easier than their predecessors born in the "baby boom" period. The same principle also applies to the younger generation in China. The young people love sports, but exercise is not necessarily the way shown in video tutorials; they like running, but not the marathon is the only goal. Under academic and career pressures, young people hope that exercise would not bring more burdens. They prefer to experience happiness in sports rather than pain caused by muscle tearing.

　　In the boom of the national marathon race, Fun Run is deeply loved by young people.

　　Compared with marathon, Fun Run has fewer restrictions and has more entertainment and social properties, giving contestants the space to fully release themselves. After The Color Run and Bubble Run, XTEP Penguin Party run, as a newcomer, by virtue of Tencent Sports' clear insight to young people, combines sports and socializing, initiates a team combat mode, and adds games to the running process. In addition, recreational gurus are invited to participate in the interaction on site. It changes boring running to a "cool run party" that connects online and offline social circles.

　　It is noteworthy that XTEP Penguin Party run is not the first event that connects online and offline sports created by Tencent Sports. As early as last year's Rio Olympics, the first Rio Olympics media theme project in China titled "Run to Rio" was correlated with WeChat sport. Runners can earn points by using the number of exercise steps each day to complete the online Olympic tour.

　　From the point of user attraction, both XTEP Penguin Party run and "Run to Rio" activities give young people more participation and stronger sense of engagement. Moreover, diversified social space designs connect young people more closely. Consequently, young users show deeper and stronger dependency on product and media brands.

　　With the development of the sports industry, post-90s have become the core consumers of the emerging sports market. Sports brand owners should further study the characteristics and needs of the consumer group.

　　Source: Yutang Sports