Did you check in and share after today's exercise?

The interest of Chinese people in sports is increasing year by year. By analyzing the new trends predicted by the organization, it can be seen that the form and value of sports have changed dramatically: on the one hand, fans are driven by interest to contact new sports, and on the other hand, they are eager to build social relationships and express themselves in the process of sports, and at the same time achieve physical and mental growth.

The threshold of interest is lowered, and sports people are more and more fond of "trying first"

In 2023, the ice and snow sports fever of the Beijing Winter Olympics has not subsided, and the Chengdu Universiade and Hangzhou Asian Games will be held one after another. People's enthusiasm for sports is unprecedentedly high, and the scale of sports enthusiasts is also expanding, and sports have gradually become a popular way of life.

According to a survey conducted by the Institute of Shock, people have become more sensitive to the popularity of sports and are more and more eager to try new things. The rich content provided by social media and sports communities has lowered the barrier to entry for sports enthusiasts to learn about new sports. On platforms such as Keep, Xiaohongshu, and Baidu Tieba, you can find rich content from introductory teaching to equipment purchase with a simple search. Sports enthusiasts can quickly learn sports knowledge and master sports skills. As a result, people who are eager to get out of the outdoors have re-selected a series of new popular sports in the past year.

According to the "2024 Sports Trend Guide", in the survey of the online exposure of 12 sports, it can be seen that among the niche sports that will become popular in 2023, hiking, rugby, frisbee, and Pilates have decreased in popularity, while 8 sports such as Baduanjin, marathon, cycling, skateboarding, meditation, yoga, tennis, and skiing continue to maintain a growth trend, especially Badanjin, marathon, cycling, skateboarding, and meditation, showing an amazing upward trend.

Looking at the overall trend, the popularity of individual niche sports has declined, but people's enthusiasm for participating in emerging sports has not decreased. People's choice of sports is diverse. From indoor to outdoor, from single player to multiplayer, the abundant sports options reflect the diversified trend of sports needs.

The event ignited the enthusiasm for sports, and the "outdoor sports" exploded

In the past year, people have gone outdoors to actively participate in various collective events such as marathons and cycling, feeling the freedom of body and mind in heaven and earth, and rejuvenating their vitality in outdoor sports.

Among outdoor sports, marathon, as a popular representative event, has "blossomed everywhere", and it has also ushered in a strong growth of the sports crowd. According to the statistics of the Chinese Athletics Association, a total of 348 road running events were held across the country in 2021 with 1.23 million people participating, 58 events were held in 2022 with 390,000 people participating, and 699 marathons were held in 2023 with 6.0519 million people participating.

Judging from the holding of events, the 699 marathons in 2023 are equivalent to an average of 20.6 marathons held in each province in the whole of last year. The frequent holding of sports events has not only helped the sport itself build a deeper crowd base, but also gained continuous exposure.

On Weibo, the 2023 Beijing Marathon, with more than 30,000 participants, and the 2023 Shanghai Marathon, with 38,000 participants, have reached 1.72 billion and 1.31 billion readers, respectively. In addition, the 2023 Wuhan Marathon, which has 26,000 participants, and the 2023 Shenzhen Marathon, which is run by 20,000 people, have also reached 340 million and 310 million readers, respectively.

Outdoor sports strategy: Swipe the screen, hike, run, and "step" on popular routes

The continuous network traffic generated by the alternating exposure of large and small events has never really "cooled" the public opinion field of outdoor sports, and the influx of a large number of incremental sports enthusiasts has not only brought strong content growth to outdoor sports, but also spawned some popular sports destinations or popular routes due to the association between strategy content and real scenes.

First of all, the "out of the circle" of outdoor sports has made the demand for content among sports people also begin to grow. From January to October 2023, the number of cycling-related notes published on the Xiaohongshu platform increased by nearly 400%, with more than 1.8 million notes and nearly 1.3 billion readings on the topic of "cycling", while the number of hiking-related notes increased by nearly 300% during the same time period, with more than 1.5 million notes and nearly 2.5 billion readings on "outdoor hiking".

At the same time, the demand for content from the sports crowd has also moved from entry to depth, and a large number of "outdoor sports strategies" have been generated. In 2023, the number of "cycling" related courses on the Keep platform is about 500, and the total number of training sessions has exceeded 5 million.

In addition, the reproducibility of the sports guide itself has also given rise to some popular sports destinations or popular routes. For example, Pingxiang Wugong Mountain, Deqin Yubeng Village, Shangri-La Tiger Leaping Gorge, etc., which are well-known to hikers, as well as the "Yulin Medical University Track and Field Runway", "Jiangsu Normal University Quanshan Campus Playground" and "Dalian Minmin University Campus" are three popular routes that are "popular" by college students.

After following the practitioners, turning the community into a sports field, "punching in" and sharing became a fixed ritual after sports

Nowadays, there are new changes in people's behavioral preferences for obtaining information, such as learning about hot information through social media topics, and obtaining new lifestyles in grass-planting communities, etc., which makes the popularity of sports and social networking more and more closely linked, which also produces a phenomenon: when a kind of sports becomes popular, people also begin to enter a variety of sports communities related to it, and replace "dinner appointments" with group sports to form a new social scene.

Athletes share their sports experiences and tips on social platforms to provide guidance and inspiration to other sports enthusiasts. On the Douyin platform, there are 12 athlete accounts with more than 5 million followers and daily live sports-related content. On the Keep platform, where sports users are more concentrated, there are 49 accounts with millions of followers, and another 10 official accounts with more than one million followers. In 2023, more than 1,300 influencers on the Keep platform will produce more than 60,000 influencer courses, and drive platform users to follow more than 400 million times. It should be pointed out that "talent" is not synonymous with minorities, but refers to all users on the platform who are willing to actively share their professional sports experience. This means that every athlete has the opportunity to become an athlete and drive the enthusiasm of the whole people through the course content generated by themselves.

"Long-term exercise is often boring, especially when you have a clear goal of losing fat, getting in shape, etc. Xiao A, a user of a sports platform, believes that "external stimulation or motivation is often the motivation for people to persevere." The sports community is becoming an important driving force for the popularity of sports. There is a social "weak relationship" between users, which is embodied in every like and punch-in behavior. This kind of light interaction effectively creates a positive atmosphere within the community and also helps more people to develop exercise habits.

Sports enthusiasts will regard the sharing behavior after exercise as a fixed ritual like drinking water and taking a shower. From the perspective of exercise habit formation, the generation of sharing behavior reflects the "stickiness" between sports crowds and exercise behavior, and there is an inevitable relationship between insisting on sharing and insisting on exercise.

Nowadays, sports enthusiasts may not be motivated by a certain exercise habit not only because they continue to enjoy it, but because it maintains a sense of inner balance. Or to constantly improve your athletic ability, and gain a sense of accomplishment in the process of challenging yourself and breaking through yourself.

"Riding around the Tianfu Greenway, nearly 100 kilometers, I got this commemorative medal!" Xiaochuan in Chengdu, Sichuan Province excitedly posted his "trophies" in the past year: in addition to various commemorative medals, there are also medals in cooperation with well-known IPs such as Crayon Xiaoxin, Zootopia, and Toy Story - in addition to love, insisting on sports is also indispensable for self-motivation and participating in various "prize activities", so that sports enthusiasts can continue to maintain the "inertia" of sports. The linkage between sports and IP has become a "magic weapon" to attract users' enthusiasm for participation, and when the well-known IP superimposes the physical rewards of medals, the two-dimensional crowd with full "home" attributes will also be stimulated with "self-discipline" attributes.

Sports enthusiasts are moving towards "technology flow" to drive the growth of the professional sports equipment market

The continuous growth of the sports population base provides a good background for the in-depth development of the sports market. Especially under the influence of professional events, more and more sports enthusiasts have become interested in participating in professional events such as marathons, which has also generated a professional demand for improving sports ability, so from sports behavior to sports consumption have begun to move towards "technology flow".

According to the data released by the 2023 Beijing Marathon Organizing Committee after the race, a total of 2,402 people in the "North Marathon" will finish the race within 3 hours in 2023, which also set a new record for the number of "breaking three" marathons in China. When the sports crowd shifts from "hobby" to "specialization", the consumption of sports equipment increases. Hardware products covering multiple scenarios and multiple functions are becoming a popular commodity track for merchants to compete for.

In the outdoor sports market, although common sports shoes and apparel still occupy the majority of the market, in 2023, the amazing growth rate of bicycle-related products has allowed the market to see new growth potential, and popular items include cycling pants, cycling clothes, cycling shoes, cycling gloves, cycling helmets, cycling socks, cycling glasses, bicycle bags, etc.

It is worth noting that in the survey and analysis of sports trends, some interesting data were obtained: 52.3% of people became closer after exercising with their lovers or partners, and in addition to listening to music and watching videos, 12.9% of people chose to listen to podcasts, 3.8% of people could memorize words, and 3.0% of people could exercise and work (online meetings, etc.).

In terms of the choice of exercise time, 23.1% of people are accustomed to exercising after work (17:00-19:59), and the "peak" of exercise is between 8 and 11 o'clock every night, accounting for 28.2% of the exercisers. In addition, 18.8% of people were able to exercise in the morning (5:00-7:59) without sleeping.

Text/Reporter Chen Si