Big international brands leverage FIFA World Cup to expand into Chinese market

Many big international brands have taken the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup as a golden opportunity to capture China's multi-level consumer demand, with continued promotion of localized product innovation and scenario marketing.

Compared to the previous World Cup, the event this year has seen a greater number of international brands partnering with China Media Group, including Budweiser, Adidas and Intel. Through diverse collaborations with China Media Group's World Cup coverage, these brands are promoting new products to the Chinese market, coupled with the conveyance of brand concepts such as "shared passion" and "sustainable development."

Sports brand Adidas, together with various FIFA sponsors, has created an immersive football theme park in Shanghai to enhance the reach to and experience for fans and consumers. Adidas has also launched World Cup-themed events and pop-up stores in several large Chinese cities, including Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shenzhen.

Budweiser, the official beer sponsor of the World Cup, has launched a variety of exclusive packaged products of different sizes, packaging and flavors in the Chinese market. At the same time, it has partnered with food delivery platforms to launch a late-night instant delivery service for iced beer, transforming food streets into the gathering and match-watching spots for football fans.

"By partnering with these big events, I saw how vibrant the night life is in China. And our partners, many of them, they live from the night economy," said Michel Doukeris, CEO of AB InBev.

Chipmaker Intel, together with its partners, has created an "iWatch Sports AI Assistant," which can analyze match content in real time using local AI computing power.

"We believe that China has maintained stable opening to the outside world, and its business environment is getting better and better. Therefore, Intel is full of confidence in its future operations in China," said Wang Zhicong, chairman of Intel China.

Experts said that as the sports economy flourishes and the potential of sports consumption continues to be unleashed, the Chinese market will remain a core battleground for transnationals.

"We can also see these brands' confidence in the Chinese market, and they have high expectations for further expansion in the Chinese market. They pay close attention to the changing consumption patterns in the Chinese consumer market and are expanding their reach into various consumption scenarios and lifestyles, including watching the World Cup and other sporting events, to find more growth opportunities," said Wang Yuxiong, director of the Sports Economics Research Center under the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Big international brands leverage FIFA World Cup to expand into Chinese market

China on Tuesday released the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for promoting the development of its electronic information manufacturing industry, laying out a comprehensive strategy to enhance global competitiveness of some key sectors.

The plan was jointly released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the National Development and Reform Commission.

The plan provides that by 2030, the operating revenue of the enterprises above a designated scale in China's electronic information manufacturing industry will have exceeded 30 trillion yuan (about 4.5 trillion U.S. dollars), with a number of advanced technologies and products emerging in fields such as integrated circuits, advanced computing and consumer electronics,

The industry will also have world-class enterprises that can compete on the global market by 2030 and its research and development investment intensity is expected to reach 3.5 percent by that time.

"By 2030, China's electronic information manufacturing industry will have played a pivotal role in the global industrial landscape, with a substantial increase in fields where it takes the lead or runs neck and neck with others. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), the industry will continue to promote innovative development in a number of key areas," said Li Hongwei, chief engineer with China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute.

The plan lays out 17 tasks around four areas -- consolidating the industry's foundational capacity, boosting the competitiveness of complete electronic equipment and systems, helping the industry foster new growth drivers, and enhancing the industry's capacity for sustainable development.

These tasks include accelerating the innovation and application of smart sensors, consolidating the development foundation of the photonics industry, accelerating the innovative development of consumer electronics, and strengthening the hardware foundation of artificial intelligence, among others.

Li said that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's consumer electronics industry will experience deeper integration with AI, helping drive the development of some key technologies and products.

"As AI is more and more deeply integrated into the consumer electronics industry, new product categories such as AI phones, AI computers, AI glasses and AI toys keep emerging. This will accelerate the iterative upgrading of key technologies and products in the field of consumer electronics terminals, including edge-side large models, AI chips and high-bandwidth memory," he said.

China releases plan to enhance global competitiveness of electronic information manufacturing industry