This is a sleepless night for gaming enthusiasts. At station B, 350 million people watched the live broadcast. Douyu and Huya watched more than 100 million live broadcasts, and 86 million and 81.94 million people watched the live broadcast on Tencent Video and Weibo respectively.
This does not include spectators watching the game offline. On the night of the finals, the spectacle of 10,000 people watching the game in Wuhan Optics Valley Pedestrian Street was very popular, and other cities also held S11 offline watching activities. The official promotional posters of the League of Legends can be seen everywhere in cinemas, Internet cafes, restaurants, and pubs. A post-95 e-sports enthusiast watched the entire game in front of the big screen in the shopping mall. Although it was early morning, the first floor to the third floor were all full of people. “It’s nothing more than the New Year.”
Up to now, the related topics triggered by EDG’s championship are still continuing. There are as many as 80 hot searches related to EDG and S11. Only the Weibo topic #EDG夺冠# has generated 3.26 billion views and more than 4.01 million comments. EDG’s victory also triggered an “earthquake” in the stock market. On November 8, the e-sports sector rose by 2.54%, Tianshen Entertainment and New Culture rose by the daily limit, Shunwang Technology rose by 7.17%, Dianhun Network rose by 4.89%, and Holley Technology rose by 4.07%.
Compared with the short-term benefits brought by the EDG championship, a more milestone event for the industry is that e-sports is officially included in the Asian Games competition.
On November 5th, the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee announced all the minor events of the 19th Asian Games at the 4th China International Import Expo. The eight minor events of the e-sports events are “League of Legends” and “The King”.glory”Asian Games Version”, “Peace Elite Asian Games Version”, “FIFA Online 4”, “Hearthstone”, “Street Fighter 5”, “Dream Three Kingdoms 2” and “DOTA 2”. This is the first time that e-sports has become an official competition for the Asian Games since it became a performance event for the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018. The medals won will also be included in the national medal list.
In the opinion of the above-mentioned e-sports enthusiasts, “e-sports entering Asia and EGD winning the championship means that e-sports has become a legitimate business and a career that wins glory for the country from the past synonymous with’do not do business properly, and get rid of misunderstandings from the outside world. And prejudice.” Especially in the city’s talent attraction and cultural construction, e-sports is playing an increasingly important role.
E-sports is on the rise: the market scale exceeds 100 billion, and the talent gap reaches 500,000
E-sports has developed into a track that cannot be ignored.
According to the “2021 China E-sports Industry Research Report” released by iiMedia, the overall e-sports market in 2020 will exceed 145 billion yuan, and the growth is mainly due to the rapid development of the mobile e-sports game market and the e-sports ecological market. The e-sports market is expected to exceed 180 billion yuan in 2021.
According to the “2021 China E-sports Sports Industry Development Report” released by the Penguin Think Tank, China’s e-sports users are expected to reach 425 million in 2021, of which users under 25 account for 30%, and users under 34 account for 68.2%. .
The huge market size and young trend have added a lot of vitality to the e-sports industry. According to data from Tianyan Check, in the past five years, the total annual registration volume of Chinese e-sports-related companies has steadily increased. In 2020 alone, more than 3,400 home appliance competition-related companies will be added. In addition, since 2009, a total of 432 financing events have occurred in the e-sports field, with a financing amount of more than 75 billion yuan. Since January 2021, a total of 37 financing events have occurred, with a financing amount of approximately 8.38 billion yuan.
However, contrary to the continuous expansion of the e-sports industry, e-sports talent is still a very scarce resource. Statistics show that as of 2020, the gap in e-sports talent has reached 500,000. According to “Jiangsu News”, this year, the employment rate of e-sports students in the first e-sports college of Nanjing Institute of Media and Communication was as high as 94.5%, and 62% of the students engaged in e-sports related jobs, including e-sports clubs, game production companies, and event operations. Company and so on.
A player in the game industry said that China’s e-sports industry is still in its infancy. Southern cities such as Chengdu and Shenzhen have the most demand for e-sports talents.
It is worth mentioning that as the e-sports industry is gradually accepted and recognized by mainstream values, industries related to e-sports are being listed as key introduction projects by more and more local governments.
“The introduction of top-level events can bring a lot of attention to the city in a short period of time, and attract a large number of e-sports enthusiasts to the city to watch the game, thereby enhancing the city’s popularity, and will also stimulate local economic development.” Hero Sports VSPN COO Zheng Duo once said in an interview.
In order to become the “e-sports capital”, Beijing Haidian has issued policies to support the development of premium original games, and grants funding in proportion to the amount of software development investment. The amount of support reaches 5 million yuan, which has a great influence on the industry or was selected as a major e-sports competition. For the game, the amount of support reaches 10 million.
Xi’an is also the one who does my part. If an e-sports enterprise settles in Xi’an, it will receive more than ten financial support such as office space, fiscal and tax incentives, game development subsidies, and competition subsidies. The government has even established an e-sports game industry development fund of 3 billion yuan.
In fact, not only Beijing and Xi’an, but also Chengdu, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chongqing Zhongxian and many other cities have participated in the competition for the title of “e-sports capital.” In the short term, the e-sports industry plays a positive role in enhancing the influence of cities and promoting economic development. In the long-term, the e-sports industry can attract and retain young people, and inject vitality and hope into the future of the city.
Internet giants have gathered together, what kind of business is e-sports?
As early as August 2011, Wang Sicong announced on Weibo that he “strongly integrated e-sports” and acquired the CCM team that was facing dissolution at the time to form the iG e-sports club. In addition, Wang Sicong has also invested in a number of game companies through Price Capital, including Yunyou Holdings, Chuangmeng Tiandi, ImbaTV, Titanium Technology, Netfish Internet Cafe, etc.
In 2018, the iG team smashed the FNC team with a score of 3:0, won the League of Legends S8 annual finals, and also allowed e-sports to enter the public eye.
In fact, from December 2016,SuningAfter officially entering the field of e-sports and forming the current SN team, the e-sports industry has been favored by Internet giants. Then, in June 2017,JingdongAcquired two teams and changed their names to LPL professional team division JD Gaming and LSPL professional team division Joy Dream; in December 2017, station B announced the acquisition of the IMay team to form the BilibiliGaming e-sports club; in April 2018, Hupu Announced the completion of a one-year, multi-million dollar sponsorship contract with the iFTY, 4AM, and 17 teams.
In the second half of last year, Sina Weibo, Kuaishou, and TT Voice successively acquired e-sports teams to accelerate the deployment of professional e-sports team systems and related businesses. When Internet giants crowded into this track, e-sports made a qualitative leap in commercialization.
According to the research report of Haitong Securities, from the perspective of the industry chain, the upstream link of e-sports is mainly content authorization, including e-sports game development and game operation, etc.; the mid-stream link is mainly event execution and content production. Among them, event execution includes e-sports integration. Service platforms, e-sports venues, etc., content production includes event content production and derivative content production, etc.; the downstream is mainly content dissemination, coveringtelevisionChannels, e-sports media, webcast, etc.
According to the “2020 Global E-sports Market Report” released by Newzoo, in 2020, the global e-sports audience will increase to 495 million, and it will increase to 646 million by 2023. In 2020, global e-sports revenue will be approximately US$1.1 billion. The main sources of income are sponsorship (US$637 million), media copyright (US$185 million), and merchandise and tickets (US$122 million).
Although sponsorship is still a major component of the revenue of the e-sports industry, media copyrights have begun to become an important monetization method for the e-sports industry. Many live broadcast platforms have invested heavily in purchasing the copyright of head e-sports, such as Penguin e-sports for 60 million yuan. The price of purchasing the S file copyright of the LPL event, station B obtained the exclusive copyright of the League of Legends finals for 3 years at a price of 800 million yuan.
In addition, the potential commercial value of the e-sports industry cannot be underestimated. During the S10 finals last year, Suning’s SN team received a lot of attention. Although regretting to lose the DWG team, it still made Suning rush to the finals before the arrival of “Double 11”, and took the lead in showing a sense of existence on major social platforms. The synergy of e-sports and e-commerce can bring Suning. More young consumers also provide more possibilities for the commercialization of e-sports.
Tighter policy supervision, frequent chaos in the industry, and e-sports still facing challenges
Although the e-sports industry is gaining momentum, the challenges from policy supervision cannot be ignored.
On August 30 this year, the National Press and Publication Administration issued the “Notice on Further Strict Management and Practically Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games.” From 20:00 to 21:00, one-hour service is provided to minors, and strict restrictions are imposed on the time that minors can play online games. It can be called the “strictest in history” anti-addiction policy. At the beginning of September, almost all game companies launched a minor protection mechanism.
A fact that cannot be ignored is that professional e-sports players often have short careers. According to a survey, 54% of professional e-sports players are 16-22 years old, and more than half of the e-sports players have only 1-3 years of professional career. Therefore, many professional e-sports players have already played professional leagues before the age of 17. . After the relevant policies are promulgated, for e-sports clubs, it may lead to gaps in talents, while for professional e-sports players, it may mean that their careers are further shortened.
In addition to the challenges posed by policy factors, frequent chaos in the gaming and other industries is also a major challenge facing the e-sports industry.
Since 2017, the e-sports industry has exposed many fake matches. In December 2017, the Yuki team was investigated for personal gain by fighting counterfeit matches. Subsequently, Yuki team and all its members were banned from participating in all events hosted by Imba Media for life; in April 2019, the League of Legends Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Division issued an announcement saying that it was involved off-field. Gambling and unconventional game behaviors affected the content of the game. Team DG was removed from the League of Legends Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Division. In February 2021, FPX team Zhou Yangbo revealed that he had participated in counterfeiting matches to manipulate the betting odds.
According to insiders in the industry, counterfeit matches do exist in the e-sports circle, especially in low-level matches. E-sports players have a short career life and low income. They can only make money through these methods.
Statistics from the UK Safe Gambling Advisory Committee show that in 2019, 17% of e-sports betting participants in the UK were between 18-24 years old. In the past two years, the number of minors aged 11-16 in the UK participating in e-sports betting has doubled to more than 50,000. In fact, the domestic situation is not optimistic. Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a gaming data company, has predicted that global e-sports betting will reach 113 billion yuan in 2020, and China will become an important area for e-sports betting.
At present, supervision is still in a state of lack of chaos in the gaming and other e-sports industries. For the treatment of clubs and players’ participation in gaming, penalties are mostly imposed within the industry, and the penalties vary. However, in the eyes of the above-mentioned game industry practitioners, the future of the e-sports industry is still bright, especially after the entry of e-sports into Asia, it means that the e-sports industry will be standardized and standardized, and the future will also be more imaginative.