Though the ban on Internet cafés was never officially lifted, the fact that 134,000 are licensed now proves that the ban is unofficially over. The previous number was 114,000, though we know that provinces had the right to override the ban in tier 3 and 4 cities as demand warranted new licenses. The Niko estimate for licensed and unlicensed cafés of 30 or more seats is 170,000.

The co-operation model, where two online operators distribute the same title as will be done by Tencent and Giant with Giant's ZT Online Green Edition, was introduced to the Chinese market more than a year ago. The implications of this are broader distribution on the one hand, but on the other hand it might muddle the market. Online operators differentiate themselves from each other by the games that they operate, the technologies they use, and the audience they serve. To share game service revenue between operators for a single title will reduce income to the originating operator, but also reduces their game service costs. Shanda has been co-operating games for Kingsoft, Ourgame, and Linekong. Niko wonders if this will eventually turn some of today's operators into simply developers or license distributors, and turn other operators into simply operators who distribute 3rd party games.