Hua Fung Teh, Co-Founder and President of ONE Championship
Hua Fung Teh, the Co-Founder and President of one of the world’s largest and most influential sports organisations, ONE Championship (ONE), believes Qatar is the entry point to the vast market of martial arts, related entertainment and broadcasting in the Middle East.
A Harvard graduate and a charismatic leader, Teh stated that Qatar, a popular sport hub in the region, has a lot of potential and will provide the ideal stepping stone to the region for the Singapore-based martial arts promotion due to its sport-loving and digital savvy population.
“Obviously Qatar is a starting point. We definitely want to do a lot more in Qatar. This is a country that hosted the World Cup. So obviously, there was a great match between us and them in terms of business, events and other things,” Teh told The Peninsula in an exclusive interview.
“The Middle East itself is a very interesting market for us. It's a very young, digitally-savvy population. The GCC countries alone account for almost 60 million people. Their social and digital media usage is very high. We are one of the top five sports properties in the world, per Nielsen, by audience metrics. And we are actually number two when it comes to digital viewership. So the digital savviness of the region and the high digital penetration is a very good fit for our content and our DNA,” Teh said.
As a multi-billion-dollar sports promotion company, ONE has come a long way since its inception in 2011 as the brainchild of Teh’s good friend and the company’s Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong.
“I was born in the US, I grew up in Singapore and then I spent my working life mostly between Singapore, US and Greater China. So I grew up playing basketball, taekwondo and many other sports. I've always loved action in general. My first job was flying fighter jets,” Teh, a taekwondo black-belt holder and a former military man, said.
“The first time I was involved in sports as a business though was between 2006 and 2008. At the time I was working for the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry and overseeing the ministry's Formula 1 project team, which was involved in bringing Formula One to Singapore and running the first race in 2008. So that was my first taste of sports as a business,” Teh said.
“That's when I realized that sports is not just something to play or watch. It's something that you can actually make a living from! And fast forward to 2018, I decided to become part of this, join my friend (Sityodtong), and help build a world leader (in martial arts). So I quit my job at a global private equity firm , invested my own money into ONE, and became partners with Chatri.”
Teh said ONE has an objective which goes beyond just combat.
“Basically all forms of martial arts are from Asia. We’re an Asia-based company. So we are promoting and commercializing a sport that has thousands of years of history where we are from. Martial arts ultimately is not about bloodsport or violence. It’s Asia’s greatest cultural treasure. It’s about the values of integrity, humility, honour, respect, courage, discipline and compassion. We are promoting these values,” Teh said.
Renowned audience measurement and data analytics provider Nielsen recently ranked ONE as second in their list in terms of video views on digital media, just behind the NBA, and placed them above all other major sports empires in the calibre of the NFL, UEFA’s Champions League, the EPL, and Formula 1 etc.
Teh said the company’s approach in promoting the sport through various content formats amd distribution channels helps them reach vast audiences globally.
“As sports fans, many people are interested in the players, athletes, their stories, what happens behind the scenes, etc. People are very curious. If you think about how people consume sports today, it's not just watching live events. They watch social media. They want highlight films. They watch reality shows,” he said.
“Formula 1 has also done reality shows. The NBA, there's The Last Dance (documentary series) about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. So, there’s a few. But I think in Asia we're the only ones that have done it. It's also a way for us to introduce the brand to new audiences because not everyone starts life as combat sports fan,” Teh said.
And that seems to have worked for ONE as the brand has already spread its wings across the globe.
“We have fighters from more than 80 countries,” Teh said.
Teh also boasted about the company’s thriving digital gaming platform ONE Esports.
“ONE Esports is today Southeast Asia's largest e-sports platform. We realized there was a big overlap between our fan base and people who watched e-sports. So we thought, we have the platform reach and capabilities in place, so why don't we launch an e-sports business? Now our e-sports page oneesports.gg is in the top five pure-play e-sports websites in the world.
Teh and ONE are no strangers to Qatar.
“I was at the Qatar Economic Forum (in May). I was also at the same forum last year where we signed an MoU with Qatar Media City to collaborate in a variety of areas. And since the forum last year, we have already started doing projects in Qatar. We have finished filming the second season of (popular reality TV show) 'The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition' and a few episodes of that were filmed in Qatar. So you can be sure that there'll be more things coming up in the months ahead,” Teh said.
“So Qatar is almost in some ways another home for us now. I really like it there,” Teh added.
