Xiaohongshu lands World Cup rights — Douyin steps aside, price holds flat
TL;DR
Xiaohongshu (RED) signed with China's CCTV on May 27 for 2026 World Cup broadcasting rights. Douyin walked away. The price was not higher than the previous cycle.
On May 27, China Central Radio and Television and Xiaohongshu formally signed in Beijing — Xiaohongshu becomes a rights-holding broadcaster for the 2026 USA-Canada-Mexico World Cup, and a top-tier event broadcasting strategic partner for CCTV. Outside CCTV's own platforms and Migu, Xiaohongshu is the only public-internet platform with full real-time / delayed broadcast / VOD / short-video rights.
The deal price wasn't higher than the previous cycle. For context: in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, both Migu and Douyin paid CCTV over ¥1B for rights.
Why Douyin walked. Douyin paid over ¥1B for the 2022 Qatar cycle largely to prove its capability to handle top-tier sports events. Now Douyin is at China's traffic ceiling — it doesn't need the World Cup to acquire users. Even without rights, it can capture peripheral traffic at low cost. More importantly, TikTok is already an official partner of this World Cup — no need to pay for rights.
Why Xiaohongshu bought. Xiaohongshu is at a critical phase — pushing from 100M DAU toward 300M DAU. Traditional growth channels have plateaued. The World Cup is the only short-term channel to reach tens of millions of casual sports fans and capture male incremental users. Xiaohongshu's strength is lifestyle and recommendation content, but it lacks public-event discussion space — sports bar viewing, fan outfits, travel guides happen to be its strongest scenarios.
Scale of this cycle is unprecedented: expanded to 48 teams, 39 days, all 104 matches available free on Xiaohongshu app, web, and phone screen-cast.
via LatePost
The deal price wasn't higher than the previous cycle. For context: in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, both Migu and Douyin paid CCTV over ¥1B for rights.
Why Douyin walked. Douyin paid over ¥1B for the 2022 Qatar cycle largely to prove its capability to handle top-tier sports events. Now Douyin is at China's traffic ceiling — it doesn't need the World Cup to acquire users. Even without rights, it can capture peripheral traffic at low cost. More importantly, TikTok is already an official partner of this World Cup — no need to pay for rights.
Why Xiaohongshu bought. Xiaohongshu is at a critical phase — pushing from 100M DAU toward 300M DAU. Traditional growth channels have plateaued. The World Cup is the only short-term channel to reach tens of millions of casual sports fans and capture male incremental users. Xiaohongshu's strength is lifestyle and recommendation content, but it lacks public-event discussion space — sports bar viewing, fan outfits, travel guides happen to be its strongest scenarios.
Scale of this cycle is unprecedented: expanded to 48 teams, 39 days, all 104 matches available free on Xiaohongshu app, web, and phone screen-cast.
via LatePost
