LeSports announced its VIP paid membership plan on Wednesday, "marking Chinese mainland the second region to launch the service after Hong Kong," according to Liu Zheng of CHINA DAILY. LeSports said in a statement, "The Chinese mainland launch also represents the most commercially promising and strategically significant deployment of the membership strategy." By utilizing LeEco's "rich online broadcasting copyrights cooperation with local broadcasters and sporting associations," the firm provides domestic sports game viewers with an all-in-one membership subscription package that is priced at 590 yuan ($91) per year. LeSports Founder & CEO Lei Zhenjian said, "From viewers to users, from free to paid, from passive to interactive, and from single events to the full ecological sporting experience, we're bearing down on the last mile of the development of the sporting sector by addressing a key weakness in the industry. Only by providing users with compelling value and a satisfying experience can a business truly thrive and prosper. This is the responsibility and mission of LeSports and of all people in the sports industry." With the "increasing popularity of sports and the rise of the smartphones and smart televisions, there exists a strong demand among Chinese audiences for online sports." A report by iResearch Consulting Group said that the "number of paying viewers in 2015 soared 264 percent to 28.84 million, and is expected to reach 54.41 million this year." The penetration rate of paid users is "still low at 5.7 percent, suggesting the potential for development is huge" (CHINA DAILY, 4/7).
