Weekly Twitter Posts
China's Shanda buys up
South Korean game developer, Eyedentity http://bit.ly/9L8mnt
6:50 AM Sep 10th
via CoTweet
WoW's WLK online yesterday
in China and there is a sharp increase in prepaid card sales, per this
article http://bit.ly/9kcGkE
6:45 AM Sep 1st
via CoTweet
Lenovo developing eBox
game console in new Beijing eedoo tech div. Implies China's ban on
consoles may be overturned http://bit.ly/9QXYw9
11:14 AM Aug 31st
via CoTweet
Interesting report on the
underreported earnings of Chinese upper class. We've known this
anecdotally but here it is: http://bit.ly/al1C0V
6:36 AM Aug 19th
via CoTweet
Niko Partners releases
2010 Chinese Gamer Focus Group findings http://bit.ly/8Yzerv
6:50 AM Aug 13th
via CoTweet
Tencent's online games rev
for Q1 & Q2 2010 exceeded $600 mil, whereas full year 2009 it
reached $789 mil, & now 2010 will be even higher.
6:35 AM Aug 12th
via CoTweet
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Back from China
Lisa Hanson spent 14 weeks living and working in China
this summer, with her husband (who also works with Niko) and their two toddlers. It
was an adventure and a great opportunity to "walk a mile in their shoes" by
living there as opposed to simply traveling to China and managing employees there.
They lived in a tier 3 city in southern China and did a Mandarin immersion
program while running Niko, conducted focus groups for Niko's Chinese Gamers Focus Groups Findings Report
(July 2010) - a very interesting report by the way, well worth the purchase
price of $4,500 - traveled to Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Hong Kong for
meetings and sightseeing, and spent a lot of time talking to gamers, visiting
Internet cafés and embracing the local gamer culture.
In addition, Niko embarked on new research of 7
additional Asian countries as part of the new Niko Asia Emerging Markets
research service. We already launched reports on Vietnam and Taiwan, and next
up are Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. The Chinese market
Six-Month Update Report is also going to be published in October. The company
has been busy researching and publishing all of these reports, and now Lisa and
her family are back in California. We apologize for not writing a newsletter
the past couple of weeks. Contact megan@nikopartners.com
to purchase all of the new research!
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China Video Game Industry Legal Primer
Please contact Niko Partners to receive a FREE copy of
the China Video Game Industry Legal
Primer (July 2010), written by The Law Offices of Greg Pilarowski in
Shanghai. It is an excellent primer on the topic of regulations, and Niko
Partners knows this law firm well. Contact lisa@nikopartners.com or megan@nikopartners.com for a
copy.
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Last week, users of Tencent's QQ were rewarded for
registering with their real-name. Virtual gifts for players of their games were
offered when they successfully registered with authentic identity card numbers.
To enforce this, players of QQ games will have their game earnings erased every
five hours if they do not register with their real-name and the pop-up windows
requesting registration will continue to come up. This is due to the MoC's new
online game regulation, the "Interim Regulatory Methods for Online Games," that
requires all online game users to register with their real name.
It will be interesting to how this will play out with the
anti-fatigue law already in place that restricts minors from playing more than
five hours in one game a day. Perhaps we will see an increase in the number of
games that minors play as they go from one game to another during each game's
downtime, as registering with their name will result in stricter control over
their hours. Or perhaps they'll figure out yet another loophole (like
registering under a parent's name) to get around the registration requirement.
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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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