LaLiga and Douyin have inked an agreement whereby the Chinese platform will become an Official Social Media Partner of the Spanish football league until March 2021.
Douyin, branded as TikTok in markets outside China, is based around user-generated short video content, and has been one of the world’s fastest growing social media platforms in recent years. It had 400m daily active users in China in January this year. LaLiga has 1m followers on the Chinese platform.
The two parties described the deal as a “first of its kind” by a major football competition. Douyin’s sports director Ye Jueming said the deal would mean LaLiga’s content would reach a greater number of fans.
“As a social media platform with great growth and potential, we’re proud to reach this cooperation agreement with LaLiga, one of the most important leagues in the world,” he said. “We seek to promote the sport through our technology, which will allow contents, materials and challenges to reach a greater number of fans, allowing them to strengthen their relationship with the tournament.”
lfredo Bermejo, digital strategy director at LaLiga, said: “We are very happy to be the first league in the world to sign this kind of deal with Douyin, which will allow us to reach new audiences and give maximum visibility to our clubs on the short-form video platform.
“More and more LaLiga clubs are firmly committed to having a presence on Douyin; Atlético de Madrid, FC Barcelona, RCD Espanyol de Barcelona, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and Valencia CF are some of the clubs already present on this platform.”
The deal augments LaLiga’s digital strategy in China, where it already has an official presence on the main social networks, as do 18 of its clubs.