Xiaohongshu Secures World Cup Broadcasting Rights, Ushering in a New Era for China's Sports Market

Opening a New Era for Sports Broadcasting

Xiaohongshu’s meteoric rise has reached the world’s largest sporting event. On May 28, 2026, Xiaohongshu officially announced its acquisition of exclusive broadcasting rights for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. This makes Xiaohongshu the third broadcasting rights holder in China after CCTV and Migu, and the first community platform to own full broadcasting rights for live streaming, on-demand content, and short videos. The platform has set up a robust system to provide all match-related content in various formats, including real-time broadcasts, delayed cycle streaming, and on-demand content featuring short clips and highlights. The landscape of World Cup broadcasting in China has quietly evolved over the years. In the 2018 Russia tournament, long-form video platform Youku and telecom provider Migu dominated the scene. By the 2022 Qatar World Cup, short-video platform TikTok and Migu emerged as key players. Now, for the 2026 North American World Cup, Xiaohongshu and Migu are poised to redefine the broadcasting structure, signaling a new phase in China’s sports copyright market.

A High-Stakes Gamble Since Its Inception For

Xiaohongshu, which recently surpassed 400 million monthly active users, acquiring the broadcasting rights isn’t merely about expanding content—it marks a crucial turning point in its growth strategy. Xiaohongshu currently faces two major challenges: slowing growth and a homogenous user base. The platform’s overwhelming dominance among female users has imposed multiple limitations on its development. Brands targeting male consumers in sectors such as automobiles, electronics, and sports equipment have shown low advertising interest, thereby restricting revenue growth. Additionally, content has been skewed towards niches like beauty, fashion, and parenting, highlighting a lack of diversity. The World Cup presents an opportunity to address these challenges. As one of the world’s largest sporting events, it holds the potential to attract male users, expand the platform’s community boundaries, and carve out a second growth curve. This is a decisive move for Xiaohongshu.

A Four-Year Incremental Strategic Plan

Xiaohongshu’s foray into sports broadcasting is not sudden; it is the result of four years of meticulous and phased strategic planning. The journey began with the 2022 Qatar World Cup. Although Xiaohongshu did not secure live broadcasting rights then, it signed exclusive contracts with world-class football coaches, including Diego Simeone, José Mourinho, and Zinedine Zidane, to collaborate on in-depth content. This strategic move brought substantial traffic and buzz to the platform’s sports domain. For the 2024 UEFA European Championship, Xiaohongshu further invested in sports by appointing Kylian Mbappé as a platform ambassador. Mbappé’s on-field exploits and interactions with the platform generated numerous viral moments online, further amplifying Xiaohongshu’s influence in sports content. At this stage, Xiaohongshu’s sports strategy was still centered on star power and buzz marketing, without extending to live broadcasting rights for key matches.

A Major Step-Up in Copyright Acquisition The

turning point came in 2025, when Xiaohongshu transitioned from content partnerships to full-fledged copyright acquisition. Starting in August, it began live streaming the German Super Cup and secured the official broadcasting rights for the Bundesliga—the first time it obtained live broadcasting rights for a top-tier football league. The platform continued its aggressive expansion, acquiring broadcasting rights for the German Table Tennis League, the AFC U-23 Men’s Asian Cup qualifiers, and regional city football leagues in Northeast China. These acquisitions steadily enriched Xiaohongshu’s portfolio of sports copyrights. According to a report by Huxiu, user interaction with Xiaohongshu’s football-related content grew significantly year-on-year, demonstrating sustained demand for match viewing and discussions. This data bolstered the management’s confidence in ramping up their focus on the sports domain, laying the groundwork for securing the World Cup broadcasting rights.

Differentiation Through UGC Communities The

2026 North American World Cup will be a larger-scale event than ever, featuring 48 teams, 104 matches, and spanning 39 days. While the global audience will expand, most matches will take place late at night or early morning China time, posing challenges for advertising and monetization. Xiaohongshu is gearing up to address these challenges. Users will be able to watch all matches across devices via the app, web, and mobile screen casting. Chinese football legends such as Fan Zhiyi and Xie Hui will provide commentary throughout the tournament, while exclusive content will be created. Interactivity will also be enhanced with features like a daily “Talk Football During the World Cup” column, a dedicated World Cup channel, match predictions, and fan circles. What sets Xiaohongshu apart is its departure from traditional sports broadcasting paradigms. By leveraging its UGC community, the platform aims to create a unique content ecosystem that combines live match coverage with lifestyle-focused user-generated content. The goal is to construct a cross-industry football content ecosystem that engages both die-hard football fans and casual viewers. This model—“live streaming as the base + UGC explosion + conversion to consumption”—has the potential to revolutionize conventional sports broadcasting. While CCTV and Migu excel at live streaming, Xiaohongshu’s unique community ecosystem is unmatched.

Evolution of China’s Sports Copyright Market

China’s sports copyright market has seen its share of ups and downs. Before 2018, major internet platforms engaged in a frenzied arms race to secure expensive copyrights. However, the lack of a profitable business model ultimately led many players, such as LeSports and Wanda Sports, to exit the market. Even Tencent Sports had to scale down its operations. The market has since entered a phase of rationalization. The copyright fees for the 2026 World Cup are reportedly lower than those for the 2022 tournament. Platforms have become more cautious in their acquisitions, focusing on cost-effectiveness. Xiaohongshu’s purchase price for the rights is said to be reasonable compared to previous tournaments. Unlike traditional long-form video platforms, short-video and community platforms have operational advantages. Their extensive user bases and traffic allocation capabilities allow them to quickly reach a broad audience. Short videos, being well-suited for fragmented consumption, also increase opportunities for brand exposure.

Xiaohongshu’s Unique Competitive Edge

Xiaohongshu possesses two distinct advantages over other short-video platforms. First, its robust UGC ecosystem fosters strong community engagement. Users voluntarily generate, share, and interact with content, keeping the platform dynamic and engaging. Second, Xiaohongshu’s ability to “stimulate purchasing intent” is unparalleled. Originally designed for product reviews and lifestyle sharing, the platform seamlessly connects content with consumption scenarios. In sports content, this means integrating match viewing experiences with the discovery and purchase of related products. For the World Cup, Xiaohongshu plans to focus its monetization efforts on two fronts: live streaming and video clips. Live streams will lock in massive traffic, while clips will build long-tail assets, with both working in tandem to drive revenue.

Extreme Stress Testing Broadcasting

large-scale sports events live requires high technical standards, including sufficient CDN bandwidth, robust error management, and multi-device compatibility. Over the past year, Xiaohongshu has undergone intensive product upgrades, enhancing its long-form video capabilities, introducing 4K ultra-high-definition support, and rolling out horizontal video pages. These efforts have laid a solid foundation for handling World Cup live streaming. However, the unprecedented scale of World Cup traffic and concurrent users will present a significant challenge. Whether Xiaohongshu can deliver a stable, seamless live streaming experience and convert a massive influx of male viewers into long-term active users remains uncertain. This will serve as an ultimate stress test for Xiaohongshu’s product, operational, and technical capabilities, potentially determining the ceiling for its future growth.

Sports as the Next Growth Frontier

Xiaohongshu continues to grow as a “community of communities,” with vertical content areas like technology, anime, and gaming flourishing in recent years. The sports vertical, being a massive domain of interest, is expected to nurture more niche communities, enrich the content ecosystem, and support sustainable platform growth. As China’s short-video industry surpasses 900 million monthly active users, it has entered a phase of transition. Growth rates are slowing, and the market is shifting from expansion to retention. Leading platforms are competing by deepening their focus on verticals and acquiring top-tier copyrights. Xiaohongshu’s entry into the sports market is a natural choice in this competitive landscape. How Xiaohongshu performs on the global stage of the World Cup will have ripple effects across China’s tech platform industry. The potential of community platforms in sports content is now under the spotlight.