On the 7th March, Goldenport Holdings - parent company of the China GT Championship - and LeSports reached a strategic cooperation, with both parties planning to comprehensively collaborate on issues such as the provision of high quality online and offline resources, promotion of IP operations, race training, GT racing festivals, membership systems and brand marketing in the future, so as to usher in a new era in motorsports. Both Goldenport President, Mr Jim Ye, and LeSports CEO, Mr Lei Zhenjian, were in attendance at the launch ceremony at the Beijing Goldenport Motor Park.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has shown that the production and marketing of Chinese automobiles in 2016 reached an all-time high, with a total of 28,119,000 vehicles being manufactured and 28,028,000 being sold, which was a year-on-year increase of 14.5% and 13.7% respectively. As the biggest automobile market in the world, F1, WEC, WTCC, Formula E and other world-class racing competitions have flocked to China in recent years. It is hoped that the global motorsports market will be worth 5.6 billion US dollars by the year 2020.

Chinese Motorsports has only just taken off in recent years due to a lack of automotive culture and restrictions imposed by traditional media channels. However, the industry now is backed by the largest automobile market in the world, and aided by favourable government policies which aim to raise the sector’s annual output to five trillion yuan (USD700 billon). The full spectrum strategic collaboration between LeSports and Goldenport Holdings symbolises the fact that China’s motorsports industry is finally starting to fully embrace the internet. 

Goldenport Holdings President Jim Ye said, “LeSports has made significant achievements and is a pioneer in the sphere of motorsports media. Goldenport has also been at the forefront of Chinese motorsports for 16 years. This is a match made in heaven, and we look forward to our partnership becoming the driving force in promoting the sport.”

“Racing is a product of the age of industrialisation. It has a proven business model, and exposure capabilities far beyond those of other sports,” LeSports founder and CEO Lei Zhenjian explained. “Through this collaboration, we hope to provide racing fans with more specialised products and services by exploring the use of the internet as a business model for developing the motorsports industry”.

By means of year-round and thorough development of the racing segment of the market, Goldenport Holdings has accumulated rich resources, including the Beijing Goldenport Motor Park, for creatively gathering the cultural, entertainment, leisure, trade and service aspects of motorsports into one place. Furthermore, in 2016, they also successfully launched a premium domestic racing competition: the China GT Championship.

LeSports, as the largest domestic online gathering place for racing fans, has the rights to broadcast a number of popular domestic and foreign competitions, including F1, MotoGP, WRC, NASCAR, WEC, China GT, ELMS, the Dakar Rally, CTCC, D1 Drifting, etc. In 2016, the number of races broadcast live by LeSports reached 275, and the amount of site traffic reached 120 million viewers, with people watching on their mobile phones accounting for over 70% of this. In 2017, they plan to show nearly 300 live broadcasts, with a total duration exceeding 2000 hours.

Apart from the traditional live broadcasting, LeSports have also introduced special value-added services for LeSports members, including specialised Chinese commentary, an international signal, on-board camera views, live data, pit view, and over six clear GPS signals. There is also a function for displaying a main and a secondary feed on one screen, which also allows for instantaneous switching between the two feeds.

This also marks the first time that motorsports will be comprehensively available online and offline, which will bring brands and users together and provide a completely new marketing platform for users. This will also offer racing fans the complete racing experience, including platforms for watching races online, e-commerce, exploring the online community, offline training, GT festivals, etc.