Hisense serves as the official screen provider for Video-Assisted Referee (VAR) for Euro 2024. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)
BEIJING, July 4 (Xinhua) -- As the year of 2024 ignites global sporting frenzy with a string of events including the on-going 2024 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2024) and the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics, Chinese businesses are moving faster to expand their international presence.
By bringing products and technologies to stadiums, exporting sports-related goods, and trading through cross-border e-commerce platforms, Chinese enterprises not only achieve growth, but also show to the world their strong production capacity and the ability to quickly respond to the market.
-- Showing up on fields
On the fields of the on-going Euro 2024, what catch viewers' eyes are not only players' skills and scores, but also Chinese-made products.
On June 14, Euro 2024 host Germany kicked off the tournament with a match with Scotland in the Allianz Arena in Munich. The intense competition was showcased live on the LED screens in the stadium, which also provided high-definition slow-motion replays to create an immersive experience for the spectators on site.
The LED products made by Unilumin Group Co., Ltd. (Unilumin) from Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province were also installed in the Gelsenkirchen Arena and Stuttgart Arena in Munich.
Unilumin has provided nearly 1,000 square meters of LED screens and integrated audio-visual solutions for the three stadiums in Munich, according to Li Zhi, vice president of the company's sales service system.
"We hope to present thrilling moments to global football fans through our products and spark their passion," Li added.
Chinese smartphone brand Vivo provides official smartphones for Euro 2024. (Xinhua/Zhangfan)
Besides Unilumin, Chinese home appliance giant Hisense, electric vehicle maker BYD, financial technology company Ant Group, smart phone manufacturer Vivo and cross-border e-commerce platform AliExpress all made their presence during the championship as the official global sponsors.
Chinese companies have brought products and technological support beyond sponsorship for the tournament. This will not only help build brand image and boost the visibility of Chinese enterprises in Europe, but also create more business and cooperation opportunities to nurture new growth forces, said Jiang Han, a senior analyst of the market consultancy Pangoal.
Speaking of the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics, Unilumin said its LED screens totaling an area of over 2,600 square meters will be spotted once again.
Track bikes under the Chinese brand of Pardus and table tennis balls branded Double Fish from China will also appear on the venues of the Olympic Games this year.
-- Exporting sporting goods
International sports events have pushed up the consumption of sporting goods, bringing a large number of orders to Chinese businesses.
Exports of sporting goods and equipment from Yiwu, a famous small commodities manufacturing hub located in east China's Zhejiang Province, reached 4.1 billion yuan (563.7 million U.S. dollars) in the first five months, surging 44.4 percent year on year, according to data from Yiwu Customs.
Wu Xiaoming, a football maker in Yiwu, is busy shipping footballs to overseas customers every day. "I have a cabinet of goods in the warehouse to be shipped to France, and will soon fulfill a replenishment order from a Spanish customer," Wu said.
The export boom extends beyond the realm of sporting goods to reach event-related peripheral products.
According to the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 80 percent of the mascots are made in China. Chinese-made flags, accessories, pendants, sportswear will also feature the grand games this year.
Wen Congjian, a football jersey seller from Yiwu, noted that Euro 2024 has led to a 30 percent year-on-year increase in his company's foreign trade business so far this year. Even before the competition, he had already sold over 300,000 jerseys to Europe.
A businessman shows licensed silicone wristbands for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 30, 2024. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)
Lin Daolai, also a merchant from Yiwu whose factory is officially licensed to produce silicone wristbands for the Paris 2024 Olympics, received an order for one million such wristbands last October. Production and shipment of the ordered goods to Paris have been finished, said Lin, adding that his company's annual sales increased 30 percent thanks to the order.
-- Trading through cross-border e-commerce platforms
Sales of made-in-China goods through cross-border e-commerce platforms continue hitting record highs driven by international sports events.
The daily orders of cross-border e-commerce exports by Chinese enterprises have numbered 16,000 on average since the beginning of June this year, showing an increase of 166.7 percent compared to the same period in 2023, according to Xue Lei, business manager of the international express delivery division of Cainiao, which is the logistics arm of China's e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba Group.
In late May, Cainiao and AliExpress launched a special delivery line for Euro 2024. By setting up warehouses specialized for cross-border goods to Europe in Dongguan City in Guangdong, the companies ensure consumers in Spain, France, Germany, etc., to receive their parcels within five working days after placing orders on AliExpress.
The number of parcels sent to Europe from Cainiao's cross-border warehouses skyrocketed more than 300 percent in May from a year earlier, according to the company.
Meanwhile, the football sales of AliExpress soared 80 percent year on year in May, with the highest sales seen in Spain and France, showed data from the company.
(Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)
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