Confucian network in sport industry of East Asia

Arnold Toynbee looked as if the movement of civilizations may be cyclic and recurrent through human history; Continental civilization, Sea civilization, Peninsula civilization

Peter F. Drucker: “for industrial country, it took 200 years in UK, 100 years in USA, 50 years in German & Japan, and South Korea 30 years. China will become number two economic giant in 2005.”

*<2014 World economic forum>

The potential of sports business in Asia is bigger than what it can imagine.

There are over 4 billion people of the world’s population and sports are becoming more of a lifestyle and entertainment for Asia.

More than 60 percent of the world’s youth live in Asia and the Pacific, which translates into more than 750 million young women and men between 15 to 24 years old.

They represent the opportunity of growth of the sports industry. There are case studies supporting this.

The growth of Asian sports business is due to many companies getting involved in various Asian sports. Global and Asian companies are spending more money to build their brand name through sports.

The Asia Pacific has the world’s third-largest sports market with revenue of around $24 billion, and is expected to have the world’s third-fastest growth rate at 3.9 percent in 2015.

At present, the North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) regions are the largest and the second-largest sports markets in the world, respectively. Latin America is smallest with only 4.9 percent of the total pie.

The center of gravity of sports business will move to Asia.

The East Asian cultural sphere shares a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, political and legal structures, art, and historically a common writing system.

The core regions of the East Asian cultural sphere are China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.

The economy of East Asia is one of the most successful regional economies of the world. It is home of some of the world largest and most prosperous economies: China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

East Asia is the emerging sport market out of the world sport industry and professional leagues are take-off in business life cycle in Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan.

In 21 century, there were many world sport events also hosted in 2002(Korea-Japan World cup), and 2008(Beijing Olympic). Moreover, next mega sport events are will be hosted in 2018(Winter Olympic) and in 2020(Summer Olympic) at East Asia.

The business of sport in China, said the 2008 Beijing Olympics marked a turning point for China in terms of sports business.

Subsequently, in 2010, China’s State Council — the highest executive organ of State administration — issued for the first time a document promoting the sports industry in China, and predicted the market size of China’s sports industry will be worth 2 trillion yuan ($320 billion) by 2020.(China Daily April 18, 2014)

Economists predict that China and around Chinese regions will develop sustainable economic growth more than 50 years from now.

* <2014 World Bank>

Moreover, with efficient economic growth, globalized sports business of Confucian sports network can be the largest sport league and market in world sport market in near future.

Already Asia market is the No.1 (37%) in world luxury consumer market. China in 2012 became No.1 customer, Japan was No 2, and South Korea was No. 5.

Next rising marketing for East Asia will be sports and entertainment as capitalized consuming pattern of Western country.

Still East Asia customers are prefer to enjoy advanced and professional sports leagues of EU or USA, But they will participate and invest their local league and market as soon as possible.

For successful result, “Glocalization” (Roland Robertson’s concept , 1995) of western sport company or club is necessary to compete with other competitors in this area.

Without effective “Glocalization”, there will be hard situation in front of investors and participants.

In China Smart phone market, already China Company beats Samsung & Apple in 2014. In South Korea, Apple just has 5 % market share because of localization failure and customer satisfaction policy.

Google is not main search engine in Korea and left China that it means localization of Google was not effective and efficient in this market.

Sports business is unquestionably one of East Asia’s hottest emerging sectors in the future. Therefore, East Asia may even beat North American and European markets in near future.

Trend of capitalized civilization in East Asia is moving from Sea(Japan), Peninsular(Korea) to Continental area(China).

How long does it take to move another area?

What is your prospect & strategy?