Honor of Kings, a mobile game developed by Tencent, has announced a strategic partnership with Chinese social media platform Rednote (Xiaohongshu) for the King Pro League (KPL).
According to the announcement on social media, Rednote will become one of the official streaming platforms for the competition throughout 2025. Financial terms of this new deal were not disclosed.
Rednote joins the likes of Douyu and Huya, who are known to be the go-to streaming platforms when it comes to gaming and esports competitions. Huya, for example, also has a license agreement with TJ Sports to broadcast LPL League of Legends matches.
This marks the first time Rednote has entered a partnership in the esports scene in China. Initially unknown by a large majority of the Western audience, the community app took the spotlight last month when the US government announced it had plans to ban ByteDance’s apps in the country. On top of ByteDance’s flagship app TikTok, the planned ban also included Mobile Legends: Bang Bang given that developer MOONTON is a ByteDance subsidiary.
While the ban was lifted shortly after, Rednote rose to the top of the app download charts across several countries in January. With over 300m monthly active users and over 70% of the user base composed of females, Rednote is a social networking and e-commerce platform that focuses on user-generated lifestyle content. In addition to Tencent, Its investors include other leading Chinese companies such as Alibaba Group Holding and Temasek Holdings, among others.
Recently, the KPL has also announced that the winner of the Spring Split will gain direct access to the Esports World Cup, with other top teams in the league competing in the Asian Champions League to win a share of the $200,000 (~£161,182) prize pool.
