FC Barcelona seeking new markets

Last week I blogged about American business magnet Bill Gates and his foundation working together with FC Barcelona. Today I read on their internet side an article about them looking for new marketing options in China. FC Barcelona believes internet users are the only growth revenue streams left for clubs to tap into. That is why the Spanish football giants aim to extract 1 euro from every Chinese citizen to access their webpage in order to make €1.3 billion. The club discussed diversifying revenue streams in light of mounting costs, 56 per cent of clubs in Europe run at an annual loss despite combined revenue increases of €12-13 billion, with many still forced to spend beyond their means to compete. It was revealed 64 per cent of each club’s average revenue is spent on transfers and wages.

The director of FC Barcelona said : In order to balance your expenses, new technologies in Asian markets are the only way forward. We’ve just got a contract with a Chinese webpage developer and we are trying to get a euro from every Chinese internet user a year. That would give us €1.3 billion extra annual income. Of course we won’t get this, but we aim towards such figures.(fcbarcelona.cat)
At the moment the club cannot increase income from TV rights. And it is almost impossible given the current crisis to increase the  marketing. Camp Nou (the stadium) gets 1.5 million visitors per year to the museum and the fan shop but they are sold out every year and of course they cannot increase the stadiums capacity.

FC Barcelona thinks the only way to  increase in revenue is to adopt new technologies like the internet and the future way to go is the Chinese market. But being the first ones it is not going to be easy. The Asian markets are completely different, but the club has to take advantage. FC Barcelona has 180,000 members, the most in the world. The biggest fan club is in Japan. So FC Barcelona are doing the right thing. I live in the Netherlands and I am also wane be a member. If they pull this off I think many clubs will definitely follow.