|
Thursday, 18 September 2008 07:56 |
|
The overall numbers of the online game sector in China are compelling - in 2007 alone, CMR analysts estimated the growth in China’s online game sector at 25% to about $750 million a year.
Online gaming is constantly expanding, as more and more Chinese players gain Internet access. CNNIC estimates that 31.8% of China’s 125 million netizens played online games in 2006. The appeal to play is that “it provides a space to achieve a lot of dreams”. Games also help to “heal my wounded mind in the real world” and to “find friendship and love.”
The leading game companies are Shanda (NASDAQ:SNDA), Netease (NASDAQ:NTES), and The9 (NASDAQ:NCTY) MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) is highly popular, a fact not lost on the KongZhong Corporation (NASDAQ:KONG). This leading wireless value-added services and wireless media company delivers wireless value-added services to consumers in China through multiple technology platforms including wireless application protocol (WAP), multimedia messaging service (MMS), JAVATM, short messaging service (SMS), interactive voice response (IVR), and color ring-back tone (CRBT). KongZhong also operates three wireless Internet sites: Kong.net, Ko.cn and cn.NBA.com To enter the MMORPG market, KongZhong developed Tian Jie Online, a free-to-play game that got over two million registered gamers since it entered open beta testing in the third quarter of 2007. After passing China Mobile's testing, the game was officially launched on September, 10 on China Mobile's Mobile Online Game Platform. China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) spent about one year developing its Mobile Online Game Platform in order to foster the growth of the mobile online game industry. Tian Jie Online is among the first of three mobile online games that will run on China Mobile's Mobile Online Game Platform. “Three Kingdoms Online” (another mobile online game developed by KongZhong Corporation) has also passed China Mobile's testing and is expected to be launched on China Mobile's Mobile Online Game Platform before September, 25 of this year.  |
|
|
Thursday, 28 August 2008 08:29 |
Giant Interactive, the Chinese online game company, will repurchase USD 150 million worth of its shares in the US in a move recently approved by its board of directors, according to the company’s president and CEO, Shi Yuzhu. The move, announced earlier this month, will be executed in a phased program, over a period to be determined by market conditions, trading price and any legal restrictions limiting the repurchase of shares. Phasing the repurchase program will allow the board to review and adjust the time and scale of repurchase to match the company’s interests and in accordance with market trends.
Giant Interactive recently acquired a 25% stake in the popular Chinese Social Networking Site, 51.com, which claims to be China’s largest SNS with a user base of 102 million reported by some sources on the web in recent months. CEO, Shi Yuzhu has been reported saying that he believes online game companies’ success in the industry will depend largely on the integration of social network and community features. Giant expects to greatly expand its user base with the recent acquisition of 51.com and with the new, integrated services.
 |
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 August 2008 09:02 )
|
|
Sunday, 29 June 2008 12:45 |
|
This spring, 2008, China overtook the United States as country with the largest number of Internet users on the globe, with a staggering 221 million people online. At the same time last year, China’s online population stood at 137 million - a growth rate of 18% per year. According to projections based on this figure, there will be some 307 million Internet users in China by the year 2010. This number could turn out to be a conservative estimate, since there are additional factors affecting the growth rate. Currently, the percentage of Chinese online is relatively low compared with the total population; only some 16% of China’s vast population. But this is set to change rapidly as China’s economic boom continues and more and more people can afford to access the Internet. 
|
|
|
Sunday, 29 June 2008 06:08 |
|
The Chinese government has been encouraging Internet companies and website managers to clean up web content in a nationwide drive. The campaign was launched in Beijing on 25 June, under the typically long-winded slogan “Welcome to the Olympics, improve manners and foster new attitudes,” which leaves very little to be lost in translation. Apparently, the campaign has been well received – at least according to official sources, that is. Adult themes and all those annoying emails that clog up one’s inbox, infected emails and deceptive materials, are all to be purged in the drive to create a cleaner and more pleasant Internet environment in the turn up to the Beijing Olympics. This could be an aspect of Chinese government controls we should be so lucky as to see elsewhere on the web! Earlier this year, the authorities launched a similar campaign for public education aimed at encouraging the Chinese to drop the habit of spitting in the streets. It seems then, that the virtual and real environments in China are set to experience quite a spring clean. Moral responsibility is what the Chinese government wants to see on the Internet and what Internet companies cannot do for themselves, the authorities will probably do for them! Meanwhile, perhaps the campaign slogan could be shortened to “clean minds, clean streets”. But then, who knows what that would translate as. |
|
Thursday, 12 June 2008 13:03 |
|
Asia internet investment firm, Koolanoo announced today that the company will invest USD 20 million in the development of China's most promising Internet industry in the coming year.Koolanoo Group is optimistic about the rapid development of China's Internet industry,... |
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 July 2008 06:32 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 1 of 2 |
Feed Entries