Weekly Twitter Posts
More regs for Chinese online game co's: now they must avoid sex and vulgarity as themes in ads for their games http://bit.ly/c5gB5Mabout 7 hours ago via CoTweet
Google Says Chinese Government Renewed Its Internet Licensehttp://bit.ly/aOJZQsabout 9 hours ago via CoTweet
Apple's Invasion of China Begins With This Shanghai Apple Storehttp://tcrn.ch/9mG2hi10:30 AM Jul 7th via CoTweet
Tencent acquired 7 Korean online game devs for total of 18.464 bil Korea Won, reported Donews.com http://bit.ly/cPJ7jr1:30 PM Jul 6th via CoTweet
Morgan Stanley says PCU of NetEase's FWJ hit 2.6 mil on 7/4 and game will make up 30% of NTES revenue for 2010http://bit.ly/bM5by411:30 AM Jul 6th via CoTweet
Bill Roper, chief creative officer at Cryptic Studios, is to keynote the third GDC China event http://bit.ly/c0cmps 3:17 PM July 3rd from web
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Another day, another regulation
it seems. This time China's Ministry of Culture is restricting the type of
advertising and the models used in advertising by online game operators for
online games, after several such companies have used females known for porn videos
to promote their games. It is important to realize that other forms of game
promotion have been regulated for many years. For example, a company can't hire
a band to play on a street corner to promote a game without permission, and
certain types of billboards and signage are also regulated. It stands to reason
that vulgarity and gambling would be banned from advertising, since they are
also banned from game content. The extra step in this new regulation, effective
August 1st, is that now the government is telling companies who they
can hire to promote their games, even if the person is not doing anything
vulgar or lewd in the advertisement or promotion.
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The irony of
online games on the world wide web is that they truly are local products. The
game themes, languages, colors, and virtual economy mechanisms are developed to
appeal to a local audience, and quite frequently that does not flow well to
other markets without significant revisions above and beyond the expected
language translation. Many companies will say that they distribute online games
to multiple countries, in Europe for example, and therefore gaming is global.
But in fact only a few simple types of games are global, such as Zynga's
Farmville. Farming happens all over the world, in every country in fact, so it
is a local concept. The game itself is very simplified so people can imply what
they know of their own farming exposure while they play. But not all games are
like that. We are watching to see whether the push by Chinese online game
operators into North America will be successful, because so many successful
games in a given market have then done poorly in a targeted new market.
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The recent declines in stock
values of Chinese online game operators may be an opportunity for investment,
though Niko Partners is not a stock-picking firm and does not endorse
investment in one company over another. There is still great growth ahead for
Chinese game companies, 21.9% CAGR through 2014 by our April 2010 estimate. The
nature of the demand is changing because gamers are getting bored of the same
old types of games (cultural, mythical history themes) and the online game
operators must adapt to now respond to demand whereas in past years they only
had to supply games and all would be heartily consumed. The increase in
regulations makes things trickier, but the regulatory landscape has always been
the #1 barrier to success for this market. Internet cafés may suffer as more
people buy PCs for their homes, but we don't think the online game operators
will suffer in the near term.
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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.
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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
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