(Yicai Global) March 5 -- China’s version of TikTok, Douyin, has become an official sponsor to the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship that will kick off this summer, China News reported yesterday.

The 2020 tournament, which was postponed for one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is likely to have record viewing figures in China and greatly boost traffic on the short video platform. Euro 2016 had a television audience of 424 million in China, more than any single game in the 2016 Olympics, according to CSM Media Research.

Douyin will develop exclusive augmented reality effects and Hashtag Challenges for the event, the report said.

The sponsorship will delight Beijing-based Douyin’s legions of soccer fans. The platform had 98 million sports-related content creators as of October last year who made over 600 million sports-related videos which gathered over two trillion views and 50 billion interactions.

The organizer, the Union of European Football Associations, opened its own Douyin account, “UEFA European Cup,” yesterday and will share the latest developments, behind-the-scenes content as well as current and archival footage of stars and teams on the short-form video platform.

Five European leagues, namely the Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga and Serie A, as well as a number of other major clubs including FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern and Manchester City and Manchester United all have Douyin accounts, greatly boosting their profile in China.

Football star David Beckham, for example, gathered 1.5 million followers and 30 million views on the first day he joined Douyin.

UEFA 2020, which will run from June 11 to July 11, will be hosted by 12 European cities for the first time to commemorate its 60th anniversary.

Editor: Kim Taylor