Thematic Intelligence - Social Media in Sport 2024

An analysis of social media in sport which provides a detailed, yet easy to follow overview of a very important topic in the sport industry. The report will take a look at the key leaders in the industry and a detailed analysis of the social media in sport value chain.

Social media’s ad-funded business model is under threat

Social media companies will increasingly diversify away from their ad-funded business model in the face of increased regulatory scrutiny. In 2023 alone, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance, and Meta were fined a combined $7.7 billion for breaching data privacy laws over their ad-targeting practices.

Companies aim to protect their social media innovations

Many companies operating in the golf sector including Nike, GolfPay and Par Points Golf across 2023 and 2024 have submitted patent applications for products and software involved in the social media theme. Securing a patent ensures that companies are in position to develop products which can give them a competitive advantage against competitors within their industry.
Major sport properties generate huge social media followings. Many of the most globally popular and teams and sports leagues such as Real Madrid and the NBA have developed substantial social media followings. In September 2023 Real Madrid were the first sports club in the world to reach 500 million followers across their numerous social media accounts on various platforms. Outstripping this achievement, across the 2022/23 season the NBA generated record-breaking figures as 32 billion views were amassed across all NBA and NBA-related social media accounts. The basketball league continues to successfully promote its stars, with top players becoming global sporting icons such as LeBron James and Stephen Curry.

Leading companies

Below, we identify the leading companies in six categories of social media :

• Social networks: Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Tencent (WeChat), X (formerly Twitter), ByteDance (TikTok, Douyin).
• Discussion forums: Reddit, Quora, Stack Overflow, Baidu Tieba, India Forums, Kaskus, XDA Developers, Zhihu.
• Media sharing sites: ByteDance (TikTok), Meta (Instagram), Alphabet (YouTube), Amazon (Twitch), Snap (Snapchat.)
• Consumer review networks: TripAdvisor, Amazon, Yelp, Zomato, Alibaba, GameSpot, Foursquare.
• Sharing economy companies: Uber, Airbnb, Grab, BlaBlaCar, Kickstarter, Lyft, TaskRabbit, WeWork.
• Messaging services: Apple, Meta (Messenger, WhatsApp), Tencent (WeChat), Microsoft (Skype, Teams).

Key Highlights

• A detailed overview of the key sport property leaders in the social media space. An industry analysis of the social media market size and predicted growth forecast is provided in the report. The report also provides an in-depth analysis of the social media in sport value chain.

Scope

• This report provides an overview of social media in sport, including the key leaders and key trends across the theme. An analysis of the impact of social media is provided as well as the growth potential of social media.

Reasons to Buy

• For those wanting an in-depth analysis of social media in sport.