Xiaohongshu, the Chinese social platform known for lifestyle and travel content, has quietly secured a deal to stream the 2026 FIFA World Cup to audiences in China. Multiple sources familiar with the negotiations told reporters that the company obtained sublicensing rights from China Media Group, the state broadcaster that holds the national rights to the tournament. The agreement includes live-streaming rights as well as permission to create and distribute short-form video content derived from matches.
A shift in China’s sports streaming lineup
The move signals a notable change in how major global sporting events reach Chinese viewers. During the 2022 World Cup, Douyin — the Chinese version of TikTok — served as one of the primary digital distribution partners for the tournament. This time around, sources said Douyin appears to have stepped back from bidding for the upcoming event’s rights entirely.
It’s not yet clear why the platform withdrew. Douyin’s parent company ByteDance has been navigating a complex regulatory environment in China, and the cost of sports rights has climbed in recent years. Neither Douyin nor Xiaohongshu has commented publicly on the matter.
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CMG’s deal with FIFA came first
Earlier this year, China Media Group finalized its own agreement with FIFA after months of negotiations. That deal secured broadcasting rights for the next two World Cup tournaments — 2026 and 2030. Neither CMG nor FIFA disclosed the financial terms of the arrangement.
Xiaohongshu’s sublicense covers only the 2026 edition. The terms of the sublicense were not made public either. CMG, as the primary rights holder in China, has historically sublicensed portions of its sports content to digital platforms, allowing them to offer live streams and highlight clips to their users. Tencent and Alibaba have done similar deals in the past with other major events.
What this means for Xiaohongshu’s ambitions
Xiaohongshu, often described as a cross between Instagram and Pinterest, has been expanding beyond its core base of fashion and beauty content. The platform has added more travel guides, food reviews, and lately, sports and fitness material. Securing World Cup streaming rights would give it a massive influx of traffic during the tournament, particularly among younger users who increasingly watch sports on their phones rather than traditional television.
The company has also been testing e-commerce features and live shopping. A live-streamed World Cup could serve as a vehicle to push those efforts further, though the company hasn’t outlined any specific plans along those lines. Some analysts remain skeptical about whether Xiaohongshu’s infrastructure can handle the scale of traffic that a live World Cup generates — especially during high-stakes knockout matches.
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FIFA’s 2026 tournament will be the first to feature 48 teams, up from 32, which means more matches and a longer schedule. That’s a lot of content to manage for a platform that has never hosted a live sports event of this magnitude.
Digital rights in China keep evolving
China’s online video market has become increasingly fragmented. Alibaba’s Youku, Tencent Video, iQiyi, Bilibili, and Kuaishou all compete for viewer attention, and sports rights have become a battleground. The World Cup, with its month-long schedule and global audience, remains one of the few events that can draw massive concurrent viewership across both urban and rural markets.
It reported roughly 300 million monthly active users as of early 2025. That’s still smaller than Douyin’s 700 million-plus, but the platform’s user base tends to be more engaged and wealthier — a demographic that advertisers covet. The company may be betting that exclusive access to World Cup content will accelerate user growth and retention, even if it’s only for a single tournament cycle.
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Some industry watchers have questioned whether the deal makes financial sense. Sublicensing fees for major tournaments can run into the tens of millions of dollars, and Xiaohongshu has yet to turn a consistent profit. It did not respond to requests for comment on the financial terms or its broader sports strategy.
CMG, for its part, continues to hold the exclusive broadcast rights for traditional television. The state broadcaster has used sublicensing as a way to extend its reach into digital spaces without shouldering the full cost of production and distribution across every platform. The arrangement also allows CMG to maintain oversight of how the content is used, which matters under China’s media regulations.
The 2026 World Cup is still more than a year away. Both CMG and Xiaohongshu have time to finalize technical details and marketing plans. Whether the partnership becomes a template for future sports deals — or remains a one-off experiment — will likely depend on how well Xiaohongshu handles the pressure of live sports delivery and whether it can convert temporary World Cup traffic into lasting user growth.