For us, it's all about growth, and China play a significant part in that endeavor.
Rich Routman
Minute Media President
There is "no shortage of football media platforms for fans to consume their football news," with plenty of options such as platforms like Goal, Copa90, 90min and Dugout from which to choose, according to Shawn Lim of THE DRUM. While the competition is "stiff," Copa90 Head James Kirkham said that he is "not worried about market saturation," as he does not see the others as "pure competition." Instead, he said that the competition he is concerned about is "anything competing for the attention of Copa90 audience," like gaming platforms such as Xbox and shows like Game of Thrones. He said, "We have Copa90 fans that spend 35 minutes per week with our content, so we're confident we can engage better than most of the 'me too' publishers who are going solely for quick hit eyeballs." To maintain engagement with its fans, Kirkham said that Copa90 has to "continually iterate and evolve," like expanding its fan universe by "giving them the opportunity" to buy Copa90 merchandise, limited-edition World Cup t-shirts, a unique cap collaboration with Talisman and a craft beer up and down the U.K. In contrast, 90min owner Minute Media President Rich Routman said that retention is the "last thing" on the company's mind, given the "loyalty of its user base." He claimed that 90min has had no less than 65 million unique users per month on its site every month in '18, with "significant spikes" around the World Cup. He said, "For us, it's all about growth, and China play a significant part in that endeavor." Both 90min and Copa90 recently made their entrance into the Asia Pacific through the China market. 90min is working with Sina Sport to provide fan-driven int'l football content to the Chinese market. Copa90, meanwhile, secured a 10% cash investment from Infront Sports, the Dalian Wanda-owned marketing group, and signed a media partnership with Chinese sports digital consultancy Mailman to "leverage the growing football market" and distribute content to the Chinese audience through platforms like Weibo and Miaopai (THE DRUM, 8/23).
