China’s prominent state television broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) has issued a report on the current state of the country’s esports market and expectations for the future of the industry.
According to the report, the Chinese esports market reached a value of 8.48bn RMB (£960m) in 2018, whilst the total output value of country’s esports industry is expected to reach a considerable ¥21.1 bn RMB (£2.3bn) by 2020. CCTV also reported that there are over 50,000 working in the industry — a number which is also expected to rapidly increase to past 250,000 by 2020.
Speaking to CCTV, Bang Xu, Vice President of Tomorrowland Esports Ltd, noted: “Three years ago, it may have taken two or three months to get one or two applicants for the director of an esports league. The number of esports leagues in 2016 was just less than 10. At present, we may have dozens of applicants in a month, and the number of esports leagues has exceeded 100.
“Although more and more people are willing to engage in the esports industry, esports talents are still in short supply compared to the speed of the industry development.”
To meet the demand from the esports industry, numerous Chinese colleges have opened esports related courses to cultivate talents across different areas including event management, event operation, esports broadcasting and esports streaming.
“Esports talents are still in short supply compared to the speed of the industry’s development”
Besides adding esports majors to education, the Chinese government is also trying to raise public awareness of esports as a whole. On April 3rd, the Chinese government officially confirmed “esports operator” and “esports player” as two new professions in the country. With this support from the government, Chinese esports fans will be more confident to engage in the industry and, in turn, contribute to the development of esports nationwide and globally.
Esports Insider says: The Chinese government has noticed the overwhelming potential in the country’s esports market and they are trying to develop it far and wide. With announcements of multiple policies for the industry, we expect to see considerable developments in the near future with ample stakeholders on standby effectively utilise the country’s support to further develop the esports industry.