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UFC Partners Chinese Short Form Content Platform Toutiao
Under the deal, UFC will use the ByteDance-owned service Toutiao to distribute a range of short-form content, including localised videos, photos, messages and graphics to MMA fans in China.
The move, which complements the UFC’s rights deal in China with PPTV, comes ahead of the opening of the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai – reportedly the world’s largest MMA training facility – later this year.
The UFC debuted in mainland China in 2017 and took its first event to Beijing last year, while it has also signed a number of Chinese fighters, including Zhang Weili, Yadong Song and Li Jingliang.
“Diversifying how our consumers consume and interact with UFC content is key to our continued growth in China,” said Kevin Chang, the promotion’s senior vice president Asia-Pacific. “We are honoured to be on this exciting journey with Toutiao. Their pioneering platform is perfectly aligned to our remit of innovatively reaching fans across China with the very best sports content.”
Launched in 2012, Toutiao delivers personalised content recommendations to its hundreds of millions of Chinese users. As well as the UFC, other major sports organisations have also launched on the platform, including the Bundesliga, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL).
