Getty Images
- Grand Slam also offered short video clips on Douyin
- US Open now has more than 1.35m followers across both Chinese platforms
The US Open’s daily live stream in China clocked up 40 million views over 14 days, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) has confirmed.
The ‘Good Morning US Open’ series, a daily content live stream on social media platform Weibo, served as a first for a tennis major in China, with the Grand Slam also producing clips on short-form video app Douyin.
Aired live every day throughout the competition at 7pm China time, the one-hour show reviewed the previous day’s matches, interacted with fans and looked ahead to the upcoming action.
The show was hosted by two well-known influencers and tennis fans, Chen Junle and Li Bao.
The live stream helped the US Open earn more than 100,000 new followers for its official accounts over the tournament’s run.
Notable highlights in China were the US Open women’s singles champion Emma Raducanu and women’s doubles champion Zhang Shuai. Raducanu, whose mother is Chinese, delivered a message in Mandarin to her Chinese fans via the US Open’s official Weibo channel, which reached 11 million impressions.
Shuai, meanwhile, received strong support from Chinese fans, with the hashtag ‘#Zhang Shuai wins the US Open women’s doubles#’ breaking into the top 50 on the Weibo trending topic list.
The US Open has been active in China for four years, having launched on Weibo back in 2017. The tournament now has official accounts on Weibo and Douyin, with a total 1.35 million followers across all platforms. The tournament is also the fastest-growing Grand Slam in 2021, gaining over 400,000 new followers on Weibo, and breaking through the one million followers mark during this year’s event.
“We’re immensely proud to have delivered an entertaining and educational daily show to our valued fans across China,” said Amanda Wight, USTA director of international strategic development.
“The aim was to bring our Chinese fans closer than they’ve ever been to the action, and to be the first Grand Slam to achieve this live stream format for 14 days in a row speaks volumes for the importance the US Open places on the China market.”
