Weekly Twitter Posts
Check out the Weekly Update from Niko Partners http://conta.cc/cVe4MW
Tencent's Cross Fire hits
2M PCU, surpassing DNF. Tencent's $35B mkt cap (8/10) helps the machine
feed itself http://bit.ly/cbfDIf
6:32 AM Sep 21st
via CoTweet
Seems that the Chinese console market will see regulatory overhaul soon, based on Eedoo's announcement of the eBoxhttp://bit.ly/aSrXDa9:01 AM Sep 15th via CoTweet
Check out the Weekly Update from Niko Partnershttp://conta.cc/cQj1Ut9:07 AM Sep 14th via Constant Contact
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
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Oak Pacific (OPI) announced that it will merge two of its
SNS sites, RenRen.com and Kaixin.com, to compete more strongly against
Kaixin001.com (yes, those two sites have very similar names). RenRen.com is one
of the leading SNS sites in China already, and is also open-platform, which
distinguishes it from the competition. Kaixin.com is a much smaller player in
the SNS world. Kaixin001 is a leader in the space, along with RenRen.com and
Tencent's Qzone. There is often confusion between the sites with similar names.
This move should strengthen OPI's position, though gamers Niko has interviewed
have said that Kaixin001 and Qzone are their two favorites.
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Apple recently launched the iPhone 4 in China, to great
success. China has the largest market in the mobile industry with more than 800
million subscribers between the three main service providers: China Mobile,
China Unicom and China Telecom. China Mobile currently ranks on the top with
over 500 million subscribers. But Apple partnered with China Unicom (plenty of
analysis in the press about how that was the wrong partnership for Apple). More
than 200,000 iPhone 4's have been pre-ordered in China thus far, much improved
from the previous model's sales figures there a year ago. The iPhone in China
is contract-free and the 32-gigabyte iPhone 4 sells for about 5,999 yuan, the
16-gigabyte model selling for 4,999 yuan. Niko's subscription research clients
will read more about China's mobile gaming sector in our China Six-Month Update
Report, due mid-October.
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Industry
speculation on console regulations
Speculation about China's law banning game consoles is a
hot topic in the wake of the eBox announcement. Some observers think that the
regulation will need to be overturned, or at least amended, to allow for the eBox. Others
say that the regulation was vague to begin with and only specifically called
out arcade machines as illegal, so consoles could be legal. And still others
say that really the only area banned is imported game consoles but domestic
competitors would be legal. We know that there are "console alternatives"
already like the set-top boxes that behave like a game console but port other types of
games for use in China. We also know that the PS2 was allowed from 2004 through most of 2005. And we know that there has been no
government complaint about the eBox announcement by Eedoo, a division of
Lenovo. We'll all just wait and see what the law of the day turns out to be
when the eBox is officially launched in 2011.
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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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