Wimbledon teams up with WeChat to attract Chinese young audience

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Europe

Wimbledon tournament, one of the world's biggest tennis tournaments, is working hard to court Chinese people.

It was professional tennis player Li Na who introduced China to the lucrative delights of Grand Slam tournaments. Her triumphs in Australia and France gave budding Chinese tennis fans someone to root for. Here at Wimbledon Li Na struggled and, consequently, the fans in China failed to follow.

Retired Chinese professional tennis player Li Na.(VCG Photo)

World tennis is dominated by long-term rights deals. China really is the one remaining substantial growth area for Wimbledon.

But to break into China, Wimbledon's going 21st century by turning its attention to digital deals as well as TV rights from next year.

In addition, the club's playing doubles with the Chinese social messaging app WeChat, through which millions will be able to access Wimbledon content. The target market: young and affluent Chinese.

Mick Desmond, Wimbledon Commercial Director, said Wimbledon had realized that most Chinese people are not watching this tournament on a TV set. They are watching on a mobile or an iPad, or a PC, so Wimbledon have to do some changes to create their imagery for all the devices.

According to the club's accounts filed with Companies House, the Wimbledon Grand Slam makes more than 130 million US dollars from TV rights. Successfully selling digital and TV rights inside China could ultimately add many tens of millions more to that already sizeable sum.