Paris Saint-Germain has become the first football club to launch an official account on Chinese micro-content platform Dongtu, while Liverpool has become the first English Premier League team to have a presence on fellow short-form video service TikTok.
The French Ligue 1 champion will offer GIF-style content via Dongtu similar to international equivalent GIPHY.
Positioned as the GIPHY of China, Dongtu, which this month agreed a partnership with North American ice hockey league the NHL, is the largest micro-content network in China. It boasts 75 billion views per month and is integrated into 3,000-plus apps, including QQ, WeChat, Taobao, MoMo, and TanTan.
PSG is so far said to have received 155 million GIF views.
China is a priority market for PSG, with the club set to embark on another pre-season tour to the country. PSG will face Suning-owned Italian Serie A side Inter Milan at the Macao Olympic Sports Center on July 27, followed by a match against Spanish LaLiga club Espanyol at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center on July 30.
Paris Saint-Germain’s summer China tour marks the second year in a row the club has visited mainland China, having won last year’s Trophée des Champions against Monaco in Shenzhen. The club will once again compete in this year’s Trophée des Champions in Shenzhen against Coupe de France winner Stade Rennais on August 3. PSG has seen its Chinese social media accounts grow over 650,000 followers in the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, Liverpool will use TikTok to reach and engage with new audiences online, particularly younger fans. The new account, @liverpoolfc, will share short videos and behind-the-scenes footage from around the club, including training ground moments, entertaining clips and stand-out goal celebrations from the first-team players.
TikTok is currently available in more than 150 markets, and in 75 languages, with a localisation strategy to encourage users to create and interact with content that is culturally relevant.
Liverpool already reaches more than 66 million fans via social media, with a presence on a range of global platforms which cater for supporters across the world. Liverpool recently became the first Premier League club to reach two million subscribers on YouTube, making the account one of world football’s leading YouTube channels.