Niko News on China's Video Game Market
Volume 38
June 2010

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Weekly Twitter Posts

In an icafe in Sanya, China today we saw no one playing WoW, though it is the leading MMORPG in China. 6:50 PM Jun 4th from web

Signs point to a slowing in the growth of registered users of Chinese SNS like Kaixin001 & Renren http://bit.ly/aNeIk4 http://bit.ly/c86AWl 5:51 PM Jun 2nd via web

With Blizzard's busy pipeline esp. in China, Niko agrees w/ Frank Pearce: WoW has not peaked just yet http://bit.ly/9upPc8 2:16 PM May 31st via web

Lisa is relocating to China for 3 months starting today! 11:11 AM May 28th via web

Lisa spoke on the Online Games panel at Stanford's China 2.0 con on 05/25, alongside several great speakers & a great audience china2.org 1:10 PM May 27th via web

Zynga's entrance into China is notable w/ their acquisition of XPD Media & the opening of their own Beijing studio http://bit.ly/alsyQE 4:26 PM May 22nd via web

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There is a focus on games and online portals for Chinese youngsters with green games that have "safe" content, regulations protecting them, and online operators looking for market segments to chase after. Niko thinks that this is a big growth opportunity in China and one that has not had a lot of success in recent years. With increasing popularity of social networking games and other casual games, children have more options of "safe" games to play. We will watch for the launch of titles and portals targeting this market segment.
2010 is the year that Chinese game companies expand internationally in earnest it seems. The latest move is by Beijing's Linekong to partner with Vietnam's VTC Online to release Journey to the West in 7 foreign languages and 12 countries in the next month. That sounds ambitious on all levels, but it demonstrates again the importance of international markets to Chinese online game companies. Even though the Chinese online game market will grow at 21% through 2014, the annual growth rate has peaked so international growth is a smart move.
The Ministry of Culture has expanded its parental monitoring system intended to help parents supervise their children's gaming behavior. It makes it possible for parents to check whether their kids are using real name registrations or faking registration with their parents IDs. The government has several youth protection measures in place for gaming, including the anti-fatigue system limiting usage to less than 3 hours in a row for people under age 18. Now the recommendation is to limit youth gaming time to 2 hours per week and 10 RMB in spending per month - but it seems that will be a tough goal to reach for most parents of serious youth gamers.

Niko News is just part of the market intelligence experience offered by Niko Partners to help you better understand the thriving video game market of China.

Niko Partners is the premier provider of market intelligence and custom research services on China's video game industry. There are more than 70 million Chinese gamers eager to play hit titles on systems with the latest technologies. With Niko Partners market intelligence services, you can get to know these gamers, find Chinese partners, and use our actionable market data to build and execute your strategic plan.
If you have any questions or if you have a project that could use our assistance, please let us know at info@nikopartners.com or contact Megan Carriker at 336-326-5595 or megan@nikopartners.com