E-sports has become the first sport for young people in China. Middle-aged people may not be fully aware of the opportunities behind this sentence.

Even if they are just 35 years old, the first group of Internet aborigines will probably be "dumbfounded" at e-sports 's status today: if they play these games such as Dota and Warcraft played by their parents in Internet cafes from an early age, as long as they play them well enough, they will one day not only win glory for the country in the arena, but also bring hundreds of times the return to angel investors.

Bilibili Inc. has only 200 million young people, and e-sports already has more than 400 million users, three times more than four years ago. Among them, 40 million heavy users watch e-sports for more than 3 hours a week. Not only the user growth is amazing, the income of China's e-sports industry has also become the first in the world.

This potential market has attracted one group of players after another: first the rich second generation like Wang Sicong and Qin Fen, followed by industrial giants such as JD.com, SUNING, Bilibili Inc., Topsports International Holdings Limited and Li Ning Co. Ltd.; of course, there will be no shortage of star capital such as Sequoia, CMC, Gaorong, Wuyuan and Zhenge.

Just in recent days, Bilibili Inc. and e-sports announced the completion of the first round of financing of 180 million yuan, led by Zhejiang Creative Culture Fund, Tianfu Cultural Investment and Borey Communication.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, e-sports MCN Company Big Goose Culture, e-sports Club AG, e-sports event operator VSPN received investment from Kuaishou Technology, Sanqi Mutual Entertainment, Tencent and some VC institutions respectively.

Just as successful real estate owners at that time were equipped with a football team, now big companies are ashamed to say that they are a brand for young people if they do not form their own e-sports team.

This once "unprofessional" industry, after several reshuffles, has now come to a new point of "rice circle"-- among the 400 million young people, 136000000 girls are "crazy" for e-sports stars.

Meal circle: 140 million girls are crazy for e-sports stars.

Many people's memory of e-sports 's economy still lingers in the "five consecutive seats" of the Internet bar of 10 yuan an hour in college. In fact, in the past few years, China's e-sports industry has undergone earth-shaking changes. One of the most interesting features is e-sports 's "rice circle."

An industry personage in charge of e-sports fan operation told Touzhong that the trend of rice circle in e-contests is obvious in recent years. One phenomenon is that fans of offline competitions will take the initiative to provide some support to contestants, some of which are even better than club officials. In addition, the unique products of the rice circle, such as support studios, anti-triad stations, CP fans and illegal rice, also appear in the fan groups of some e-sports players. In his view, the formation of rice circle culture, mainly from the past 2-3 years e-sports out of the circle, more female users, pan-e-sports users (cloud players) to enter.

According to the report, the proportion of female e-sports users reached 34 percent in 2020, an increase of 4 percentage points over the previous year, and the proportion of users under the age of 24 (post-1995) reached 29 percent, an increase of 3 percentage points over 2019. These fast-growing new users are highly coincident with the portraits of star-chasing users in the food circle.

These new users are very different from the old ones. E-sports 's original fans pay attention to the players' skills, and it is normal to "boast and scold after showing off". But pay little attention to things outside the game, their demand for e-sports is relatively simple, "whoring" addiction has also become a common phenomenon of original fans.

In contrast, just as the rice circle does not care much about the singing level of the idol, e-sports fans of the rice circle do not care very much about the operation of the players, and their needs are more diversified. On the one hand, they will spend more money on naming skin, players' perimeter, offline tickets, player endorsements, etc., to support their favorite teams and star players, on the other hand, fans of rice circles pay more attention to the off-court performance of players, which forces the club to strengthen the image management of players.

China's e-sports has experienced three stages of development. the first stage is from 2000 to 2010, when the Internet bar team gradually developed into the first batch of e-sports clubs in China. At that time, the main events were StarCraft, War3 and Dota, and the most representative was War3 world champion Li Xiaofeng Sky.

The year 2011 is the first year of China's e-sports 2.0. two landmark things epitomize this period: first, Tencent bought a 90% stake in American boxing games and introduced League of Legends LOL, a MOBA game developed by the latter, which became popular all over the country in just a few years; second, Wang Sicong acquired the veteran e-sports team CCM and renamed it IG, thus starting an upsurge of rich second generation investment in e-sports team.

During this period, China's e-sports developed savagely. On the one hand, the huge user base of LOL provided rich soil for the development of China's e-sports; on the other hand, the rich second generation entered the industry waving checkbooks, the value of e-sports contestants soared, and industry chaos represented by sky-high prices and vicious poaching also emerged one after another.

As the Chinese team won the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018, big companies began to realize e-sports 's great influence among young people and the change in official and social attitudes towards e-sports 's project. some companies that smell the opportunity began to buy or form their own e-sports team.

After the introduction of professional operation and management and stable industrial capital, the e-sports team relying on large companies has quickly made amazing achievements.

As shown in the picture above, in 2017, JD.com, SUNING and mobile game unicorn FunPlus and sporting goods retail giant Topsports International Holdings Limited Sports respectively formed four teams: JDG, SNG, FPX and TES through formation and acquisition. The teams supported by these giants quickly beat a group of established teams, dominated the domestic LPL arena in 2019 and 2020, and achieved good results in the LOL global finals S series.

It is difficult not to think of the impact of the entry of Evergrande Group on Chinese professional football at that time, and it is also an inevitable trend for more and more industrial giants to enter e-sports industry.

JD.com Xingyu, the main operator of JD.com and e-sports, told Touzhong that on the one hand, the e-sports market has a lot of room for development. From the data point of view, the domestic e-sports user scale and market scale are showing a high growth, the public recognition of e-sports is also getting higher and higher, and now it has gradually developed to mainstream sports events, but there is still a lot of room for commercialization. There is great potential for development.

On the other hand, cultural and brand communication is also a value that can not be ignored. Sports events, as the mainstream entertainment to the public, have a considerable positive impact on society, while e-sports, as a trendy sports activity, accord with the cultural communication environment of the new generation, and can also integrate the development of science and technology to make more qualitative changes.

Another brand director of e-sports also held the same view, telling Touzhong.com that e-sports is an important circle culture of the younger generation, and more than 60% of the users are Generation Z. At present, the popularity, attendance and peak value of the global finals of mainstream professional leagues such as LPL, KPL and League of Legends have approached or even surpassed traditional sports, the consumption power of e-sports users is also constantly released, and e-sports 's user dividend is very attractive to the new domestic and new consumer brands that have developed rapidly in recent years.

"there is more than one way for brands to catch young users and cut into the cultural circle. It is a very good way to start with the e-sports Club and gather the eyes of young people. In the long run, this kind of investment is also worthwhile. Therefore, the acquisition and restructuring of clubs by companies such as Li Ning Co. Ltd. and JD.com is by no means an one-vote nature, but after careful consideration. "

Compared with the grassroots period and the rich second generation investment era of 1.0,2.0, the entry of industrial capital has brought not only financial support, but also brought great changes to the commercial ecology and industrial chain of the whole e-sports industry.

The checkbook of the rich second generation and the backing of the industrial giants

Over the past decade, the difficulty of making profits has been the biggest pain point for e-sports 's industry. in the early years, club income was mainly competition bonuses, and contestants only had a meagre salary of a few thousand yuan a month. The entry of the rich second generation in 2011 and the rise of the live broadcast of e-sports have increased the income and value of the contestants, but they have far exceeded the hematopoietic ability of the industry. Except for Tencent, who has made a lot of money, from the live broadcast platform to the club can only rely on capital for blood supply.

An e-sports industry personage said that the reason why it is difficult for the industry to make a profit in the past few years is that the development of the whole industry is relatively primary and e-sports 's commercial ecology is not sound. In recent years, e-sports has developed rapidly, the commercial ecology is relatively perfect, the business alliance is becoming more and more mature, and more and more brands have begun to enter the field of e-sports.

At the end of 2019, Bilibili Inc. won the exclusive broadcasting rights in China for three years of the LOL global finals for 800 million yuan. It cost Youku only 1.6 billion yuan to win the online broadcast rights of the 2018 World Cup. In 2019, Nike Inc signed a four-year clothing sponsorship contract with LPL, which is rumored to cost more than 50 million yuan a year.

In addition to the expansion of the influence of the event itself, the intervention of industrial capital has brought more resources, reshaping the development and competition pattern of e-sports industry in just a few years from the aspects of commercialization, team management, brand management and so on.

JD.com Xingyu said that from their own point of view, the team supported by the company can achieve excellent results, in addition to the efforts of the players, but also benefit from entrepreneurial management and adequate resource support.

"for example, in terms of competition and training, we have a perfect competition and training system, systematic management and implementation in the selection and training of e-sports talents, and can take the initiative to explore a wider crowd. The famous players Zoom and Yagao were first discovered from the LDL secondary league team, and then joined the JDG team to shine. "

In addition, no matter the competition training, market brand and business development all follow the mode of enterprise management and operation, provide sufficient and stable resource support, give the team operation strong backing, so that they have no worries to strive for results. Such systematic development and support is an important reason for good results.

As for the commercialization level, industrial capital has also brought more changes. Take JD.com Xingyu as an example, its profit model is divided into the following aspects: first, the team has league and sponsorship income, and at the same time, it has opened up e-sports 's e-commerce business, which is not limited to selling derivative products of the team. More closely combined with sponsored brands and cooperative brands, the use of live broadcast, integrated marketing and other comprehensive means to provide brands with more e-commerce sales channels. In addition, JD.com Xingyu is also developing offline e-sports business, such as e-competition venues, e-competition offline space, e-sports hotel and so on.

Compared with individual investment teams, because of the blessing of large companies, partners and users will have more trust in the club. Enterprise investment can bring stable resources to the team, in addition to sponsors and brands, management systems, suppliers and even logistics aspects have a more stable guarantee.

In addition, in brand management, the giant company's brand public relations team can provide more professional support for the club, which is more in line with the development situation of e-competition mentioned above.

BLG signed Taiwan's fofo at the end of 2019. In February 2020, fofo's girlfriend revealed to the outside world some inappropriate remarks made by fofo in her early years because of a relationship dispute. BLG and Bilibili Inc. e-sports, behind it, responded quickly, investigating and clarifying the relevant reasons, and fined fofo six months' salary on the grounds of bad impact caused by improper handling of emotional problems, which extinguished a public opinion crisis in a very short time.

The professional public relations brand team of the giant company will strictly manage the external brand image of the contestants, and even say a dirty word in the live broadcast will be punished by the company after the broadcast.

In sharp contrast, a club founded by e-sports practitioners has recently reported a player prostitution scandal, which has dealt a serious blow to the club's image during an important period before the start of the new season. It is hard to imagine that such a mistake will occur in clubs managed by professional teams.

The entry of the giant has accelerated the development of e-sports industry, the new demand has also created more gaps in the subdivision field, and the first entrants are also quietly laying out the innovative companies in the upper and lower reaches of e-sports industry.

The first is the competition operation company at the core of the industry. Recently, Bilibili Inc. and e-sports completed the first round of financing of 180 million yuan, led by Zhejiang Creative Culture Fund, and followed by Tianfu Cultural Investment and Borey Communication. In October last year, Hero Sports VSPN announced the completion of hundreds of millions of dollars in round B financing, led by Tencent, followed by SIG, Kuaishou Technology and Tiantu Capital.

In addition, according to industrial and commercial information, Bilibili Inc. bought a stake in e-sports MCN organization Big Goose Culture in December last year, which has more than 10000 KOL.

The large factories represented by JD.com are also quietly laid out in the field of e-sports subdivision. JD.com Xingyu invested in the electronic competition training platform ESPORTS-X in December 2018. The data show that the latter is a SaaS platform based on scientific data analysis technology, and the training management model is tailored for professional clubs.

Globally, the early investment in e-sports 's industry is even hotter. According to lazy bear sports statistics, there were 142 investments in e-sports industry around the world from January to October 2020, with a total amount of more than 1.2 billion US dollars, covering e-sports fighting platform, game team, science and technology, venues, content platform and other fields.

A fund called Griffin GamingPartner took nine months to raise money and set up a $235 million e-sports special fund.

Aiming at the 2022 Asian Games, China's e-sports reached a new peak.

The moment the Chinese team lifted the trophy at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games was the beginning of China's e-sports 3.0 era, while the Hangzhou Asian Games held in China are likely to push the domestic e-sports industry to another peak.

On December 16, 2020, according to the official disclosure of the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee, e-sports was officially approved to be included in the competition of the Hangzhou Asian Games.

At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, six e-sports events, including "League of Legends", "Arena of Valor" (Arena of Valor International version), "Royal War", "Live Football", "Legend of hearthstone" and "StarCraft II" were unveiled as performances. By 2022, e-sports will become an official event on the stage of the Hangzhou Asian Games.

JD.com Xingyu believes that the introduction of e-sports competition in the Asian Games represents the recognition of the sports and mainstream nature of e-sports and establishes the positioning of e-sports 's mainstream sports events. Secondly, under the publicity and exposure of the Asian Games, e-sports will be concerned and accepted by more people and more circles. In the past, the main audience of e-sports may be considered to be mostly men and young people. However, after the promotion and official entry of e-sports events in recent years, e-sports will be accepted and recognized by the public and become a mainstream sports and entertainment project.

On the other hand, e-sports 's entry into Asia also promotes e-sports 's commercialization and ecological diversification. E-sports has always paid high attention to sports events, but there is still great room for commercialization. Mature events such as the Asian Games can provide a good reference for e-sports 's commercialization, stimulate industry vitality, stimulate multi-input, and even promote the introduction of more relevant industrial policies and expand the ecosystem.

Official recognition will help the domestic e-sports industry to accelerate its development with the help of the strength of the government. A practitioner told China Investment Network that in recent years, regional governments have been continuously introducing policies to support e-sports industry, and e-sports operator and electronic athlete have also become new occupations. E-sports 's entry into Asia will help to enhance the social status of e-sports contestants, let Green e-sports develop more orderly, and at the same time make "National e-sports" a step further.

In fact, the inclusion of e-sports as an official event in the Asian Games is only a small step, and the topic of e-sports joining the Olympic Games has attracted much attention in recent years. At the eighth Olympic Summit held at the end of 2019, e-sports was officially included in the category of sports.

E-sports of China, from the Internet bar to the Olympic Games, has gone through the youth of more than one generation. Even now, there are voices of opposition, such as iQIYI, Inc. Sports CEO Yu Lingxiao firmly refusing to recognize e-sports as a sport, but e-sports industry has indeed attracted 400 million young people.

E-sports 's industry, which is professional, competitive, and rice circle, is no longer what middle-aged people think of as "not doing their proper job." for this year's young people, e-sports is like hip-hop, rap, and trendy play. This 100 billion market contains not only the next bucket of gold from investors, but also the blood and youth unique to this generation of young people.