World Cup fever seems to have caught on with the Chinese despite them not having a national team in the tournament.
Two Chinese online streaming sites that paid for the rights to broadcast games from the Fifa World Cup in Russia on mobile devices have revealed huge viewer numbers, indicating the level of football fever in the country and despite China not having a national team at the tournament.
Youku, an online streaming platform that competes with Tencent Video and Baidu-backed iQiyi in China, said more than 180 million users – or around one seventh of China’s 1.3 billion population – watched the game on its mobile apps during the one-month tournament period. The company added that the final between France and Croatia drew 24 million viewers, double the number registered for the opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia on June 14.
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