BADZINE – Chinese fans to enjoy new Badzine channel soon

Photo: Yang Ming, Live in Guangzhou

Mrs. Guan Weizhen (photo), President of the Guangzhou Badminton Association and Raphael Sachetat (photo), chief editor of Badzine International and founder of the website channels, signed an agreement today in Guangzhou in front of local media representatives to seal a new partnership for the future launch of a Badzine Channel in China.

The regional website in China will be part of the main Guangzhou Badminton Association’s website and will be managed by some of the Association’s staff as well as free-lance reporters from mainland China, with hopes that this new Badzine channel will reach the likes of the ones already successful in France, Germany, and the International version www.badzine.info, which has been known as one of the most reliable sources for the badminton world.

“We are very honoured to work together with the Guangzhou Badminton Association. They have always been very supportive of our work, and we can see that they are visionary people by the way they develop badminton in their city and province. For us, it’s a great opportunity to start this new adventure with them,” said Raphaël Sachetat.

“GUANGZHOU BA is very happy to cooperate with BADZINE because we both aim at promoting the badminton. Hopefully we can work together well and make the badminton more and more popular around the world,” added Mrs Guan.

The website will not only feature local badminton news – but also some translations of articles from the other Badzine websites, bringing a new vision of foreign badminton to the Chinese fans.

The website will benefit from the exclusive partnership of Badmintonphoto, the official BWF photo Agency, which holds a 300,000 strong photo database and covers all major events. Live photo galleries will be put online for major events.

“We believe this new website will be very exciting as it will be quite original and new to the Chinese badminton fans. There will be some exclusive news and features on Badzine in China and we look forward to seeing it launched fairly soon,” added Sachetat. Regional websites are also under preparation in Japan, Poland and Indonesia for launches later this year or early 2011.

The Chinese version of Badzine is set to be launched before the upcoming Thomas and Uber Cup in a month’s time.