In 2015, the "Internet + sports" field, what are the more influential investment and financing cases

Sports industry is so hot, about sports + Internet you must know

After experiencing the 2015 "hot and cold", into the bottom of the stage of sports entrepreneurship in 2016 warmed up, a large number of new players into the industry, new opportunities slowly emerge, the attention of the capital continues to go up again!

Why is the sports industry so hot when many "new face" funds are piling into it?

In addition to the improvement of national quality, the sports industry seems to be driven by the policy to move forward, every sports must talk about "Document 46" is the perfect chicken blood, 5 trillion market tempted many entrepreneurs, of course, there are many investors.

After experiencing the "hot and cold" in 2015, sports entrepreneurship has entered a stage of bottoming out and warmed up in 2016, with a large number of new players pouring into the industry, new opportunities slowly emerging, and the attention of the capital continuing to go up, with a lot of "new faces". "Funds are also piling into.

Why is the sports industry getting attention?

1. Policy guidance

Since 2014, the State Council issued the opinion that the sports industry will be upgraded to a "national strategy", and proposed that in 2025, the total scale of China's sports industry will reach 202.5 billion.

According to the 21st Century Business Research Institute, last year, the country's 31 provinces have introduced sports development plan. By 2025, the total size of the sports industry planned by the 27 provinces that put forward specific goals exceeded 7 trillion yuan. The clear guidance on policy has undoubtedly triggered the enthusiasm of capital.

According to international standards, when the per capita GDP reaches 5,000 U.S. dollars, the sports industry will appear "blowout" trend. At present, China's per capita GDP has reached the level of 8,000 U.S. dollars, per capita sports consumption is only one-tenth of the global average, the future prospects will be released to a greater extent. Data from the sales terminal provides the basis for the judgment. Wang Xuesong, general manager of Jingdong Sports, said that the sports category is one of the important categories of Jingdong's rapid growth, and the sales growth rate from 2013 to 2015 was over 100%. This year, "6-18" day, the number of sales reached 2.6 times the same period last year.

2. Consumption upgrading guidance

Like many areas, consumption upgrading to the sports industry has also benefited greatly.

The report shows that "niche" sports catering to specific groups of people, such as hiking, biking, camping, rock climbing and kayaking, are becoming the hottest trends. These sports are more "expensive" than traditional sports. From 2013 to 2015, the consumption trajectory, the proportion of basic sporting goods consumption declined significantly, but the proportion of cycling, swimming, fishing supplies consumption all the way up, especially the fastest growth rate of angling supplies and cycling consumption, the first half of this year, the above sports consumption growth rate of more than 75%.

In 2015, there were nearly 200 large-scale cycling events in China. Among them, amateur events and mass activities accounted for more than 80%, the bicycle has evolved from a "transportation" to a "health sport", driving the cycling market continues to expand.

Fishing has become as attractive as equestrian, golf and tennis.

Seventy percent of angling consumption is concentrated in the post-80s group aged 26 to 35, accounting for 68.97 percent of consumption. Fishing entry consumption is concentrated in more than one thousand dollars, and the repurchase rate is very high. The report also shows that mountaineering, hiking, skiing and other outdoor consumption is also in the "wind mouth". After China won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, it is estimated that the snow and ice sports involved in the Winter Olympics will drive other related industries to more than 300 billion yuan.

In the context of consumer upgrading, experts believe that the industry is worth paying attention to the following segments:

1. Sports IP investment is hot, how to fall layout

Unlike the film and television industry, in addition to a handful of domestic and foreign top tournaments, the sports industry seems to be very difficult to have an impact on the emergence of IP.

The top events have become the focus of big companies and capital giants, which is obviously not the optimal investment direction. Finding, selecting and cultivating new and growing IPs is a question that the industry and the capital should think about.

From the point of view of sports itself, there are two attributes that make up an IP: either it can aggregate a large enough number of people to watch it, or it can attract more people to participate in it. In this dimension, we try to break down the industry and look for directions with investment value in the sports IP field.

The linkage effect of top IP: The most influential domestic headline event must be football and basketball. After the Chinese Super League copyright sold 8 billion yuan last year, I believe the CBA will also complete the grafting with capital in the near future. Huge capital will pull the valuation of the entire core tournament chain up, while the sinking and penetration of funds, but also to remove the copyright of the various aspects of entrepreneurship and investment opportunities.

For example, the operation and management of the league clubs and business development, the signal broadcasting of the entire league, program packaging and production, team venue ticketing and the operation and management of the surrounding commercial real estate, and then, and the league, clubs, players in the game, e-sports field of the combination and extension and so on.

Sports and entertainment combined with the TV reality show: in fact, the creation of sports variety IP, has been this year's major satellite TV main direction. Currently on the market has been sporadic about diving, soccer sports variety show, but the overall response is not satisfactory, the root cause may be too heavy sports elements, the lack of professional and pure entertainment production team. There is no doubt about the direction of combining sports + entertainment, which should first have all the attributes of entertainment and reality TV, rather than simply applying the concept of sports in a rigid way. In a way, despite the absence of sports stars, "Running Man" is a standard sports entertainment reality show.

IPization of niche sports: Compared with the headline events, niche or offbeat sports are unremarkable. However, these sports concepts introduced from abroad or originated in the private sector have quickly attracted attention in the field of mass consumption, and are a direction that investors should pay attention to in the future.

For example, Crossfit, an emerging fitness concept and approach that originated in the United States, has rapidly spread around the world in the form of a chain of fitness brands to join, and came to prominence in China in 2015. Socialized, team-based, and with new attributes that set it apart from the traditional fitness industry, Crossfit is spreading rapidly in the segmented, heavy fitness population segment.

And then there are examples, such as marathon running upgraded events, similar obstacle running Spartan, mud run, and even the Ice Bucket Challenge, which previously caused a nationwide craze, have the shadow of having the ability to become a sports IP.

Amateur or campus grassroots event IP: this is the domestic capital and entrepreneurship has long been concerned about the field. Foot basketball high net and other major sports areas, there have been many around the amateur or campus league began to do. But it is a little regrettable that, as of now, there is not too much famous or have a strong public **** effect of the tournament. And the existing tournaments, simple sponsorship model, there are few other business models. Whether it is the tournament IP itself and the capital side, need to be patient to cultivate and wait for the market to mature.

2. Boutique, standardized, portable new gym

The traditional gym may be the best cash flow and the biggest part of the cake in the whole sports industry chain, excluding shoes and clothes. More importantly, the gym is a variety of sports occurring offline can not be bypassed scene, along with the improvement of health needs and the popularity of the fitness population, the investment in various types of gyms should be the focus of long-term tracking concerns of the capital side.

The investment in gyms can be twofold.

One is, the traditional large-scale chain gym with offline foundation, after its own upgrading, and the capital market combined with investment opportunities, such as mergers and acquisitions, IPO.

Two is, the future of the boutique, community, management standardization, low threshold high service, can be grafted onto the Internet channel entrance to a new type of gym, can be a sustained focus. For example, there are now entrepreneurial projects in China, with the container made of mini gym, scattered in all corners of the city, so that users can 24 hours at any time to punch the card fitness, they are typical of the consumer upgrades after the product, but also the future of the big trend.

3. Equipment upgrading, diversification and technology is the big trend

Equipment is probably the most direct rigid demand in the sports industry. Over the past few years, the domestic footwear and clothing equipment has been giving people the impression of overcapacity. But in fact, the concept of the past product stays more in the sports and leisure public clothing, consumer upgrading, will be the transition to professional and tiered equipment, with a sense of technology and fashion concept of the new equipment, will become the sports crowd actively choose the category.

The field of running and fitness has been entrenched by giants, and the supply of equipment in niche areas such as ice, snow, outdoor, women, etc., regardless of domestic and foreign countries, may contain opportunities for new brands to enter.

4. High-quality technology sources

Technology has been the driving force behind the transformation of many industries, and sports is no exception. Currently we can see and sports-related technology: bracelets, running insoles, heart rate stickers, physical signs detection, headphones, VR, face recognition and motion capture technology, and mobile live streaming and so on are worth continuing to track; in addition, new foreign technology products, technology sources, and sports equipment technology products can also be concerned.

5. Focus on women's sports, health and social products

Whether it's sports watching or sports consumption, women are playing an increasing role.

Publicly available data is that the European and American market for women's sporting goods consumption has been growing for 10 consecutive years, the average annual compound growth rate of about 17%. It can be seen, Nike and Adi and other sports giants, in recent years in the female market force, such as the opening of women's franchise stores in the domestic first-tier and second-tier cities, to provide women-specific sweatpants and underwear shopping experience, and so on.

In fact, in addition to specialized women's sports equipment, women's gyms, training methods and courses, specialized tournament IP, as well as online social products for sports and health, should be areas of investment concern.

6. Sports Nutrition, Rehabilitation and Insurance

Sports nutrition, an area that cannot be ignored.

There are two broad directions in this area. An online health management platform, currently many sports APP seems to be trying to cut in;

The other is quality nutrition, health care products, this part is more products, less domestic, but demand is strong, often from overseas. So quality brands and supply chains are more absent.

Rehabilitation and insurance, the former is currently seen more workshop-type stores, difficult to form a chain of brands on a large scale, the latter is currently domestic entrepreneurship is also beginning to take off, see the subject is not much, for the investment point of view, you can be early in-depth layout.

7. Advanced training methods

Sports consumption upgrade, high-quality advanced training methods naturally inaccessible. At present, the domestic sports venture capital field, there are basically two ways, 2B and 2C, the former is more training materials and courses, the latter is similar to training schools and training camps. Volume and population base is large, and has a very strong demand for the field, such as soccer, fitness, related training methods or can focus on.

8. New consumer groups, post-95, the combination of the second generation and sports

Compared with too many visible and understandable sports entrepreneurship track, focus on the second generation, the second generation, the 95 and other emerging consumer groups, is the direction of sports entrepreneurship in the future can be expanded and extended. Understand the new crowd focus on sports, entertainment and fashion areas, build their sports consumption scene, establish emerging business models.

For example, basketball can be an entry point, basketball is more concerned by the young groups, and hip-hop street culture and fan economy is extremely relevant, around these young fans of the community, platforms, and other entrepreneurial projects, are worthy of attention.

9. Gaming, the combination of sports and games

Gaming is a combination of sports and games, and its own huge aggregation effect is favored by various institutions and investors, who generally believe that this is another field that may give birth to giant companies in addition to equipment and IP.

The investment value has no need to repeat, from the game's R & D, the organization of the tournament, to the emerging media broadcast platform, and then downstream to the huge audience, each field has the possibility of outbreak and investment opportunities.

10.2B market for corporate health and sports services

The last area, health management for employees of large corporations, may be a unique entrepreneurial direction in China. After the eight regulations, the three public consumption continues to decline, the enterprise's own funds for employee sports health more "legitimate". For the 2B enterprise market, sports health management system, event organization, healthy catering and fitness management, etc., all have a certain demand. Only the choice of investors, depending on the subject of different teams.

Advice for startups

Even if a startup picks the right track, the actual operation is still not easy. It requires startups: a down-to-earth model, whether you want to make a particularly good gym and offline facility, or some really smart equipment, or some other amateur league. You need to make sure it's really valuable, not just for eyeballs, and don't always benchmark yourself against foreign countries paralyzing yourself with a Chinese XXX.

More importantly, your event is attended and paid for, and that's entrepreneurship.

The core of the Internet + sports in fact still offline, online can do relatively little, similar to the information live, big companies are doing, startups can not afford to buy copyright.

And entrepreneurs can do is actually online and offline combination of parts, such as online traffic, the organization of offline activities, fitness, etc., to determine the user to stay or land to the offline service.

This is also one of the reasons why sports startups are not good at getting financing, because it's not like Internet companies, as long as the product is used well, users can get a lot of users and VC investment. In the sports industry you need to have both sports-related expertise, but also marketing and promotion to vacate, but also to find VC to get money, these three capabilities of a team is very high.

While sports entrepreneurship is more difficult than imagined, but the upward trend of this industry is very clear, one aspect is that people are starting to a little bit of money, and the second is that the economy is not particularly prosperous, the efficiency of people with money is not as high as spending on sports and exercise, time and energy spent on a variety of sports will become more and more prevalent.

The Gold Advisor believes that there are opportunities in every field, and that if you choose well, you should go faster, and if you choose poorly, you should wait patiently. If you stand in the next five years to look back, now is the best sports entrepreneurship early access to the opportunity to enter now than in the future to enter the probability of success is much greater.