Tencent's Olympic reporting strategy: a gorgeous scam

On July 5, Tencent, which has been hoping to join the ranks of major portals, released its Olympic reporting strategy, directly targeting Sohu, the Olympic sponsor. Tencent's President, Martin Lau, even told the media that they intended to break Sohu's monopoly. On the same day, Tencent also loudly announced that it had become the partner of the Chinese Table Tennis Team, the Chinese Badminton Team, the Chinese Swimming Team, and the Chinese Weightlifting Team. From the outside, it seemed as though Tencent had found the key to breaking through Sohu's firm grip on Olympic rights. However, subsequent developments proved otherwise. Just one day after the press conference, Tencent had quietly removed the news about being the partner of the four sports teams from its Olympic channel. Under the requirement of the General Administration of Sport of China, Tencent had already taken down the information about the official websites of the four sports teams. The reason for the initial high-profile announcement followed by the sudden low profile was precisely the "monopoly" that Tencent had attempted to break — Sohu is the exclusive Internet partner of the Chinese Sports Delegation, and the official website of any sports team must be built by Sohu.