Chinese billiards marching towards “seller’s market” Interview with Wang Tao, Deputy Secretary-General of China Taiwan Association
Gujing Gongjiu? Vintage Puree The 2013 Haikou World Snooker World Open has just ended. It is reported that the audience is full and the TV ratings have skyrocketed (CCTV reporter revealed that the current billiards ratings are among the top in CCTV5). Surprisingly, half of the world’s top ten Snooker Opens (a total of 5 stops) have now moved to China! The other 5 stations are 3 stations in the UK, 1 station in Australia and 1 station in Germany. The competition hosted by China has greatly surpassed that of snooker’s birthplace in Britain. why? In order to find the answer, the reporter interviewed Ms. Wang Tao, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of the China Billiards Association in Haikou.
Billiards have “destiny” with China
Wang Tao told reporters that this is the result of promoting national fitness-participation of the whole people, happiness of the whole people, walking on the market, and meeting the needs of the public.
She said that billiards has a good relationship with China. Since the billiards project entered China in the 1980s, it has been loved by the people. At the beginning, the streets and alleys were everywhere, and they also created Chinese characteristics such as “Black Eight”, “Sixteen Color” and “Central Eight”. For more than 30 years, under the vigorous promotion and guidance of relevant authorities and the China Billiards Association, billiards has developed from an entertainment project for street youths to a mass sports with a population of 60 million billiards. There are also two countries with outstanding achievements. The training team and high-selling professional stars-Ding Junhui, Pan Xiaoting, etc.
The Birth of Ball City
Naturally, when there is demand, there will be a golf market, and when there is a golf market, there should be a platform or window for “consumption”-events. Since then, high-end, sophisticated and cutting-edge events that the public can personally participate in and fans love to see came into being.
Wang Tao introduced that, taking 2012 as an example, there were more than 70 international and domestic competitions registered with the Taiwan Association of China, with a total prize money of more than 40 million yuan. In terms of international competitions: Snooker A-type international professional competitions will have three stations in Beijing, Shanghai and Wuxi, and two stations in Chengdu and Haikou will be added. Continue to host the World 9-Ball China Open and the World Women’s 9-Ball Championship, and innovatively founded the World American Billiards Team Championship. In addition, the “Chinese Billiard Ranking Tournament”, which hosts four stations a year (plus 20 qualifying tournaments), is even more popular.
The above events ensured a dazzling array of “containers” and met the needs of fans. At the same time, it also provided a good platform for Chinese players to improve their competitive level, shape their self-worth, and win glory for the country.
Wang Tao said: At present, my country’s billiards competitions are basically saturated. Next, we must work hard to improve the quality of the competitions and make every game a fine product, so that my country’s billiards industry can reach a new level.
“Domestic demand” and expansion
Talking about how to continue the good development momentum brought to the ball market by the “fate” of Chinese billiards, Wang Tao said: This is a good wish that the Chinese Taiwan Association and the industry are working hard to explore, innovate and implement. That is to create Chinese billiards, and let it go to the world.
Wang Tao said that according to our survey and understanding over the years, about 70% of China’s 60 million billiards population are Chinese billiards enthusiasts. Therefore, we started the Chinese billiards ranking competition in 2012 and summarized it systematically. , Summarize and formulate the referee rules for Chinese billiards (different from British, American, French, and Russian billiards), as well as a competition venue full of Chinese cultural elements (can be cheered), table (blue and white magnetic), cue (Chinese style) ), clothing (Tang suit), relaxing background music, etc. The Chinese Ranking Competition was warmly welcomed as soon as it was launched. In addition to the large number of participants, it also attracted the enthusiastic attention of many companies.
This is an event that we have independent intellectual property rights. In the future, we will attract more foreign players to participate, and gradually improve it to the world! To put it bluntly, in today’s world economic crisis, the creation and promotion of Chinese billiards is also an effective means to stimulate “domestic demand.”
Towards a seller’s market
asked why the previous sponsor “Xingpai” of the Haikou World Open suddenly became an operating promoter?
Wang Tao said, first of all, it is not accurate to say that Xingpai suddenly became an operating promoter. As far as I know, Xingpai has always been the organizer and operating promoter of the Haikou Open. In order to operate and promote billiards events, Xingpai and Beijing Jingbo Guangsheng International Culture Communication Co., Ltd. From the Hainan Snooker Classic in 2011 to the Haikou Open in 2012 and 2013, they are all doing operations and promotion. At the same time, they caused a sensation in the first National Chinese Billiards Ranking Tournament in 2012. It is also their handwriting.
A good event has extremely high communication value and brand “carrying” capabilities, which require professional companies to carry out market cultivation and promotion operations to achieve. The successful bidding of this Haikou Open is not unrelated to their efforts to make the event a classic brand, thus forming a seller’s market. Snooker and Chinese billiards are becoming more and more popular in China. “Xingpai” has long seen its potential. So last year or even the year before, when no one liked it, they decided to make a move.
Gan Liantong, chairman of Beijing Xingwei Sporting Goods Co., Ltd., said that there are currently more than 100,000 billiards entertainment venues in China. “Including snooker, the total output value of China’s billiard industry has reached nearly 60 billion yuan. Continuous growth at a rate of 20% to 30%”. As the leading enterprise of international billiards series products, the star brand of the world’s No. 1 billiards brand must cooperate with the Chinese Billiards Association to promote the billiards industry to prosperity. Only in this way can our company be prosperous. So I don’t help, who will help?
Wang Tao said: “At present, many high-quality brand companies have begun to pay attention to top billiards events, which is also the general trend.” A few years ago, Xingpai began to consciously extend its focus to service and operation while doing a good job of products and brands. Beijing Jingbo Guangsheng Company has done a lot of work for the specific implementation of this strategy. After several years Through their explorations, they grew up with experience in running competitions from scratch. From relying on star cards to support themselves and spending tens of millions to run competitions, to this year’s Haikou Open, the listed company “Gujing Gongjiu” sponsored the title, which fully proves After “planting plane trees, attracting golden phoenix”, classic brand competitions are professionally operated and promoted and market nurtured, which will surely form a seller’s market where many companies are flocking.
