Chapter 16: The Digital Transformation in the Fitness Sector of China

The wave of digitisation is sweeping the entire world, with the new generation of digital technologies advancing rapidly, such as cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence. The transformation of digitisation is the process that digital technology is applied to carry out an all-round, multi-angle and full-chain transformation. As the application of digital technology deepens in operations, management and marketing, with the continuous release of the magnification, superposition and multiplication effects of digital technology on economic development, the transformation of digitisation provides an important means for the industry to achieve the improvement of quality, efficiency and impetus.

At present, the sports industry plays an important role in meeting the growing needs of people for a better life. Promoting the high-quality development of the sports industry is the only way forward to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of both economy and society and establish China as a leading sports country globally. In 2019, the ‘Outline for Building a Leading Sports Nation’ was published, proposing to ‘accelerate the deep integration of the Internet, big data and artificial intelligence with sports real economy’. With 5G as its core, computer technologies such as VR technology, somatosensory technology, artificial intelligence, big data and so on have entered into a period of explosive increase in practical application. It provides a key driving force for restructuring the value chain across the sports industry, increasing the added value carried by sports products, and speeding up the transformation and upgrading of the sports industry as a whole. First of all, technology is better at connecting the market with the needs of consumers, and the logic of consumer-centric value creation has become increasingly evident. Digital technology promotes the upgrading of unitary sports products towards the direction of ‘products + services’ for meeting the diversified needs of consumers. Take the Keep sports bracelet as an example. It not only helps users in making the exercise quantifiable and improving the efficiency of exercise but also helps Keep better understand the exercise needs of users through the data and provide real-time feedbacks and guidance so as to offer personalised and refined services to users. Secondly, the penetration of emerging technologies has extended the boundaries of the traditional sports industry, enriched the connotation of the sports industry and given rise to various innovative types of businesses and services. For example, 5G, blockchain, artificial intelligence and other technologies have played key roles in accelerating the emergence of online fitness and training, along with home smart fitness equipment.