In the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, China reported a significant technological milestone for their country – namely that Chinese Internet users had passed the 904 million mark. This means that over 64% of the population of the country are now using the Internet.
A more localised, yet equally impressive achievement is what eStar Gaming facilitated in Wuhan – they hosted a four-day online shopping event. Teaming up with Chinese live-streaming platform DouYu, they were trying to accelerate the recovery of the somewhat battered economy of Wuhan.
A unique format
This event saw all the eStar Gaming players appearing in the four-day streaming event, and acting as mock-salespeople. They recommended certain specialty products to the audience – but not quite what you may think!
Products included things like alcohol, special hot noodles, and fresh meat products. It was all available on exclusive shopping channels. People bought duck, chicken, lobster, vegetables and more – all via the exclusive DouYu channels that were provided.
It worked well – a total of over 810.000 units of the products were sold – totalling over 30M RMB (or $4.2M).
The companies
Both companies that teamed up here are local to Wuhan – they were also quite active during the local lockdowns and trying to keep things as positive as possible. DouYu donated significant amounts of money (roughly $1.45M) to the Wuhan Charity Association, while eStar Gaming donated tens of thousands of units of medical masks and gloves to local hospitals, in addition to about $70.000 in cash donations.
Esports or not esports?
Naturally, this whole event wasn’t exactly esports-themed, but it did a great job in showing that esports organisations are capable of more than just gaming. Wuhan was hit by a significant economic struggle following the end of the lockdown there, and what the economy needed was a boost, not streamers playing games – and that was exactly what they got.
eStar Gaming did a fantastic job of adapting to what was needed when it was needed, and no doubt managed to nab a few future fans in their own right. They’re not the only ones to have done this sort of thing either – another Chinese esports org, Royal Never Give-Up partnered with Eleme, a large food delivery service in China. Their partnership gave users the chance to win RNG merch if they ordered from certain restaurants.
The same group RNG is also partnered with Net-a-Porter, where they created an ad video together with one of RNG’s players. Now these RNG partnerships were less COVID-19 focused, but they still drew a lot of public attention with millions of views, right when the area needed some positive news.
Esports in China
Compared to the Western world, esports are a huge deal in China. More than a quarter of the people who use the Internet there watch esports regularly – that’s twice as many as in the West. As such, the participation of esports companies in non-esports events like the DouYu stream is less peculiar than it may appear. It’s similar to how an English football team may become active in their local community, especially given that esports and Wuhan have a symbiotic relationship – a lot of esports talent is from the city and surrounding places.
It’s certainly effective – millions of revenue in just four days is a huge accomplishment for the suffering Wuhan region. Being the first area to be hit hard, it’s certainly inspiring to see esports companies crossing out of their comfort zone to offer support locally!
We at EarlyGame will continue to keep a close eye on how the esports scene is aiding during times like these.
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