China is better known for making most of the world's sports shoes rather than wearing them, but the world's biggest athletic shoe brands are in a race to change that.
Adidas-Salomon announced last Monday that it would be a major sponsor of the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. Chinese athletes will wear the Adidas brand shoes and sportswear throughout the Games.
The announcement was part of Adidas' ambitious hopes for China. The company, based in Germany, intends to increase its stores in China to 4,000 by 2008 from 1,300 now, and to expand its China revenues to more than US$1.3 billion by the end of the decade.
"We foresee by 2008 China could be the No. 3, or with some push No. 2, market in the world," Christophe Bezu, Adidas senior vice president for the Asia Pacific region, said at a news conference. "China clearly is the driver." Annual revenue from China currently stood at well over US$130 million, he said.
Rival sportswear brands like Reebok and Nike and other multinational corporations also have their eyes on China's increasingly affluent and image-conscious young consumers. They have recruited sports stars like Yao Ming (
Nike's sales in China rose two-thirds in 2003 to US$300 million. Chinese consumers now spend about US$5 billion a year on sports merchandise and events, a sliver of the US$200 billion or more spent in the US every year, said Terry Rhoads, a former Nike marketing executive who is general manager of Zou Marketing, a Shanghai company that advises on sports management and promotion.
"Perhaps there's more hype than opportunities," Rhoads said, "but there's no doubt there's a pent-up demand for sports in China."
Chinese city governments have also spotted that opportunity, and many have spent heavily on new sports centers. Apart from Beijing's preparations for the 2008 Olympics, Shanghai has spent heavily on Formula One racetracks and tennis courts for international meets.
But more than income and budgets stand in the way of turning China into a major sports market, experts say. As in many other areas of the economy, multinational companies hoping to profit from China's growth must contend with bureaucracies that want to profit from their involvement but show only flickering awareness of customers and market competition.
"Sports in China are still greatly controlled by the government," Rhoads said. "The toughest thing the government is grappling with is that sports are entertainment."
Sports executives said that making China's sports administration more responsive to fans and consumers might be a long and troublesome process.
"It's the shenanigans around the sports that cause fans to lose interest," Rhoads said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would