China Unicom and Tencent E-sports recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement and the two parties will jointly build a "5G e-sports joint lab".

According to the agreement, the two parties will play their respective technology and talent advantages and industrial influence basing on the purpose of joint development and win-win. They will team to research 5G technology applications in the e-sports sector to establish e-sports demonstration applications and promote the technology development of the e-sports industry.

China Unicom Chengdu branch will be responsible for the realization of the "5G e-sports joint lab". Meanwhile, China Unicom Chengdu reached cooperation intention with Wuhou District government of Chengdu to jointly promote e-sports industry development.

In June 2019, China Unicom became the first telecom operator to join Tencent's e-sports technology alliance and launched their cooperation in the e-sports sector. At present, 5G applications are available in e-sports event network and e-sports live and broadcast.

In recent years, China's e-sports market achieved a rapid development. According to predictions, China's e-sports market scale will reach CNY130 billion in 2019; and e-sports users will reach 350 million, of which 80% will be below the age of 35.