FC Bayern Munich has been named The Most Influential Sports Club 2020 on social media platform Douyin, which is known outside of China as TikTok. The event was co-organised by Douyin and Ecotime, a top sports industry media organisation in China, and was held in Beijing on 23 December. FC Bayern launched its official Douyin account in July 2018 and now has almost 1,200,000 followers. FC Bayern’s Douyin account has gained nearly 400,000 new followers since June 2020, which ranked No.1 among all football clubs. Video views on the FC Bayern Douyin account have already passed 400 million.
Jörg Wacker, FC Bayern executive board member for internationalisation, strategy and marketing, said: “This is a very pleasing award for FC Bayern. We always want to be close to our fans, whether they’re old or young, in China or in any other country in the world. Making our unique club accessible on digital channels, particularly in these times, is very important. There’s a reason why we are ‘the biggest sports family in the world’.”
Rouven Kasper, FC Bayern Asia president, said: “We are very happy with the progress of our Douyin channel since it started in 2018. Short videos are a popular and current trend on social media, both globally and particularly in China. Through our cooperation with Douyin, we’ve worked innovatively and intensively to communicate with our fans. We are therefore delighted about the results and recognition of our efforts.”
Douyin has been FC Bayern’s official short video platform in China since May 2020, making it Douyin/TikTok’s first cooperation with a football club. In spite of COVID-19, FC Bayern has achieved great success on Douyin, offering fans a deeper insight into the club with localised and creative content, thus forming an even stronger bond with its Chinese fans – not only during the Audi Digital Summer Tour, but also in its daily work. FC Bayern is the only club showing weekly live streams on Douyin. Players such as Thomas Müller and Robert Lewandowski are also present on the platform with their own accounts.
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