Players of the Chinese women's national soccer team Photo: Courtesy of China Eastern Airlines

While the spotlight has been shining on the Chinese women's national football team following their latest victory of winning the AFC Women's Asian Cup, many Chinese companies have also rushed to support the team that has won nationwide praises. 

Chinese dairy behemoth Mengniu Dairy announced through its official Weibo account on Sunday that it has given a cash prize of 10 million yuan ($1.58 million) to the Chinese women's football team.

Alipay also awarded a total of 13 million yuan to the team, with 10 million yuan for the players and 3 million yuan for the coaching team. 

The companies' moves, though most likely aimed at showing appreciation for the team's efforts that have inspired the entire country, also reflect the growing popularity of women's football and women's sports in general, which would also boost businesses in relevant sectors, analysts noted.

Around 10 brands and companies have been sponsoring Chinese football teams, both women's and men's. But the only brands that have been sponsoring the Chinese women's team specifically are car trading platform Renrenche under Chinese life information provider 58 Group and Chinese social media start-up Xiaohongshu, or Little Red Book, since July 2021, right before the Tokyo Olympics, news portal yicai.com reported.

Chen Jianning, vice president of 58 Group, told the Global Times on Monday that the Chinese women's football team is hard-working and never gives up, which matches Renrenche's enterprise culture, and the team may increase the popularity of the brand among Chinese consumers. 

Renrenche signed a cooperation contract with the Chinese women's football team in 2021.

"After the Chinese women's national football team won, Renrenche will continuously sponsor the team as well as Chinese teenagers' football training and other sports," said Chen. 

Xiaohongshu told the Global Times on Monday that it has been cooperating with the Chinese women's football team by inviting team members to join the platform and create content as the women's football team is a very high-quality sports IP.  

Industry insiders noted that the commercial potential of the Chinese women's football team as well as the great potential of women's sports will continue to boom.  

The unleashed commercial potential for women's sports will not just be limited to football or sports in general, Zhang Yi, CEO of consulting and research firm iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Monday, adding that it will extend to the entire sports industry such as equipment, apparel, training and service providers. 

Globally, according to a report released by Deloitte, TV rights and sponsorship deals for most existing women's sports are worth at most millions of dollars, but the majority of them are below this value, noting that women's sports revenues in 2021 were estimated at well under $1 billion, a fraction of the global value of all sports, which reached $471 billion in 2018.

Deloitte's report also anticipated that women's sports will grow to be worth a great deal more than $1 billion, with women's sports to be further promoted and commercialized. 

Global Times