Maximum exposure

Olympic heroes preparing for marketing boost

Despite a medal-laden couple of decades for the sport, including Olympic glory in Rio last year, China's women's volleyball stars still lag behind their basketball and soccer counterparts in terms of earnings and exposure.

It's something of a conundrum, especially considering the team's huge fanbase. A whopping 930 million viewers watched it claim gold in Rio against Serbia on leading Chinese online portal Tencent alone, while last week at the FIVB Grand Prix Finals in Nanjing raucous fans packed a sold-out arena to roar on their national heroes.