Fans streaming in their millions to e-sports
Of nation’s more than 400 million online gamers, 56pc are now estimated to be are watching e-sports competitions
Douyu TV, a Chinese start-up similar to Amazon’s live video-game streaming service Twitch , announced a Series C round of funding worth 1.5 billion yuan on Monday, marking the latest high-profile financing deal within an online games industry which continues to boom in China.
The fact the backing was led by social giant Tencent Holdings, the parent of mainland China’s most popular mobile chatting tool WeChat, also illustrates not only the level of investor which is now piling into the market, but just how important the Chinese tech giant views the burgeoning so-called e-sports sector.
Founded in 2011, Twitch, formerly known as Twitch.tv, allows users to watch other people play video games. Amazon bought the streaming service for US $970m in 2014.
Douyu’s valuation hit US$ 1 billion in March after its Series B round worth US$100 million, again led by Tencent. Sequoia Capital China and Nanshan Capita have participated in its previous financing.
The startup, which is based in Wuhan in Hubei province where it employs 800 staff, already has around 100 million registered users and 15 million daily active users across its platform, according to the data released by the company in March.
Tencent’s levels of investment are certainly high, but they are not exceptional for the growing e-sports industry.