NBA China has released the league’s first mobile app for China to the Apple China App Store and Android. The app was co-developed by China’s leading internet-based service provider Tencent and NBA. 

The app will include game highlights, recaps and behind-the-scenes footage. Users can also see news updates, scores, game statistics and schedules. The content will be written and curated by members of NBA China. A few hours after its launch, the app had more than 105,000 downloads.

Commenting on what the app will provide to fans in China and what else the NBA is working on in the country, Shoemaker, the CEO of NBA China, said: “Our Greater China business is our most important business outside the USA. We have an incredibly broad, diverse and hungry fan base in China for all things NBA. ”

For now, we’re focused on the playoffs. We’re looking into the summer to work with Tencent on some things we haven’t done before, like the draft. We’re very much looking forward to innovating here. Our focus here really is developing the game. We’re spending millions investing in the game at youth level and working with the government to bring it to more schools.”

NBA China, a separate entity from NBA Asia, opened in 1992. Over the years, the league has worked to expand access to games, first on television, then PCs and, most recently, mobile devices. Last January, the NBA and Tencent announced a five-year deal to exclusively stream the games. Average viewership is up by 66 percent to 1.6 million, and mobile viewership accounts for 65 percent of viewership, compared to 32 percent last season, according to the NBA.

Source: ibtimes

Proofread by John Devlin.