AMMAN — The pioneering global short video
platform Likee said a survey obtained from its football report found that most
football fans opt for short videos to remain apprised on sports developments,
saying the medium builds a sense of community.
اضافة اعلان
A Likee press statement said for the ongoing World
Cup championship, football fans around the world are glued to their screens,
and this is especially true for the
MENA region.
With Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and
Tunisia qualifying,
and this year’s tournament being held in Qatar, there is more reason than ever
for regional football enthusiasts to tune in and cheer on loudly, the statement
said.
To understand and analyze the behavior and
preferences of viewers across the MENA region during the World Cup, Likee
compiled the Likee Football Report featuring 1,215 respondents from 50 cities
across 17 Arab countries.
The report contributes to filling a large gap in
data and insights about the sports preference of the younger generation.
The key insights of the report include:
Sports Preference & Behavior
Across the MENA region, football remains to be the most popular sport
with over 80 percent of respondents ranking the sport as their favourite.
Basketball, billiards and E-Sports followed football as the most favorable
sports within the region.
More than 60 percent of the fans surveyed, revealed
that they try to follow their favorite sports multiple times per week to ensure
that they are up-to-date on the latest developments.
To stay connected to their favorite teams, 46
percent of fans try to either play the sport whenever they can, and 44 percent
of enthusiasts watch the games live as they are played. The remainder of the
respondents try to remain engaged by either following the social media of their
favorite teams, join team fan groups, or try to buy merchandise to support
their teams.
While analyzing the most preferred methods to remain
connected to sports, traditional social networking apps seem the most prevalent
at 53 percent.
However, “with short video content’s popularity
rapidly rising in the region, short-form video platforms are being touted by
fans as their next best option to follow sports,” the statement said.
“This is due to the power of short videos in which
every second is designed to grab the audience’s attention,” it said. “Platforms
such as Likee are helping create high quality creative and diverse, yet easy to
consume content which continues to provide more accessibility for viewers and
content creators.”
Over the years, social media has become a source of
finding sports related news, and allows fans with new avenues to interact and
share opinions about their teams during global sporting events.
The survey found that remixes of match video clips
seem to be the most preferred viewing content by over 30 percent of
respondents.
This is followed by in-depth strategy analysis
videos at 24.2 percent, football tutorial videos at 13.8 percent, and funny and
dramatic football video clips at 11.6 percent.
World Cup Preference
There is an obvious sense of
excitement across the region with 93 percent of respondents confirming their
interest of following the
World Cup this year.
While roughly only 40 percent of people surveyed
would be travelling to Qatar for the tournament, the remaining respondents
expressed their pleasure of following the spectacle online.
With the recent rise of innovative technologies,
there are many ways for football enthusiasts to follow the World Cup this year.
This sentiment was also expressed in Likee’s report
findings, which indicated that over 65 percent of respondents preferred
watching sports at their own convenience either at home on the television,
outside at a sports venue displaying the game, or anywhere outside at all on
their mobile devices, rather than watching it live at a stadium.
In terms of World Cup favorites, Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, and Morocco are the most supported regional teams followed by Argentina,
Brazil, and Germany among surveyed Arab youth.
Most peculiarly, previous world cup winners, France
were favored below Tunisia (ranked 10th) and ranked 11th in terms of teams
being supported this year.
Egyptian Mohammed Salah and Saudi Arabian Salem
Al-Dawsari were among the most favorite players from the MENA region.
However, with the ongoing tournament being one of
the final World Cup competitions for football legends,
Lionel Messi and
Cristiano Ronaldo, they were the most celebrated players this world cup.
Football Communities
The World Cup brings fans
together in a lot of ways and short videos platforms, with their intelligent
algorithms, enable everyone to be able to share their stories, and find
like-minded people.
With this in
mind, more than 90 percent of fans agree that short-form videos build a sense
of community for interacting with people of similar interests, and up to 93
percent of these respondents are willing to join a vibrant football community
on short video platforms, such as Likee, according to the statement.
Based on the findings of the report, “people look
forward to joining football communities to mainly receive up-to-date match
information at 44.7 percent, livestream matches with others at 30.8 percent,
have friendly communications with similar minded individuals at 17.6 percent,
and discuss match predictions as well at 16.7 percent,” the statement said. The
football community on Likee has been able showcase their talents by making
innovative content in every imaginable niche, and in turn, inspire the youth to
play with their friends, hone their skills and attempt the amazing shots that
they witness during games.
During the start of the World Cup, Likee introduced
the World Cup event page under the platform’s community feature, Loop to foster
and strengthen the community of passionate football fans on the application
providing an interactive experience for users to support their favorite teams,
join fan groups, keep up with match agendas, and so much more. “Since the
launch of the feature, users have been able enjoy a more interactive, immersive
and entertaining experience while following the World Cup this year,” the
statement said.
“The recent
performances of the teams from MENA have been a spectacle to behold and we are
glad that our users from the region have access to an ideal platform in Likee
to connect with football enthusiasts.” said Gibson Yuen, head of Likee global
operations. “This year’s world cup is like no other, and the excitement around
the World Cup has not dropped ever since the start of the competition in
November,” he said. “Over the past few weeks, we have seen various great
content being developed by football communities on Likee across the world.”
“We are glad to support the unifying element of football of
bringing people together to celebrate this great football season,” he added.
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