Special issue:
Chinese Delegation Comes to the US for a Grand Tour
On April 12th, Niko Partners had the honor and rare opportunity to participate in business meetings held with a delegation of Chinese online game operators followed by a dinner party for the delegation hosted by Mr. Kou Xiaowei of the GAPP. The meetings and dinner were part of a two-week tour of the US that the GAPP has organized for China's biggest online game operators. Nine companies were in attendance, as well as members of the GAPP and ChinaJoy staff. The operators in the US for this tour during this two week period are: ChangYou, Giant, Kingsoft, NetEase, Net Dragon, Perfect World, Shanda Games, Tencent, and The9. The participants are CEO/Pres/SVP/VP level executives along with some support staff from these 9 companies.
In February, while in Beijing and Shanghai, Lisa met with Mr. Kou Xiaowei, as she has done several times. During that meeting he told her about the upcoming tour in April, and she offered to help if any help were to be needed. The tour was well organized and very well planned, but as it turned out they did need some help arranging meetings at two key Internet companies based in Silicon Valley. Niko Partners is headquartered in Silicon Valley, and we successfully arranged the meetings for the delegation of about 28 people.
That night there was a dinner in San Francisco attended by all of the Chinese companies who are in the US for the tour. Mr. Kou hosted the dinner and he surprised and honored us by standing up to give a toast to Lisa and Niko Partners, saying that our market intelligence is excellent (even endorsed it to the Chinese companies) and he expressed thanks for our help with the meetings. It was a great honor for Niko Partners and for Lisa.
The tour began in Seattle and continued to San Francisco. From San Francisco they left for Los Angeles, and from there next week they will visit New York and Boston. The purpose of the tour is to have meetings with Internet companies, game companies, and investors, and to get an on-the-ground look at the US market. Each city's activities were arranged by a different investment bank, appointed by the GAPP. The GAPP arranged the historic tour, which is quite unique in that the participating companies are direct competitors and they were all involved in the meetings together.
It is no secret that Chinese online game operators have a lot of cash and have been actively pursuing international expansion via establishment of overseas offices and acquisition of game studios. In 2010 there were a couple of very high profile acquisitions in the US market by Tencent and The9. We do not think this tour was a "shopping trip," but it does signify the importance of the US market to these companies as part of their international growth plan.
Another critical market for these companies is Southeast Asia, where Niko Partners is steadily conducting market research to generate research reports on that region for the second year in a row.
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