The reputation and perception of Chinese products by American consumers is rising, according to a recent study by Monogram Group. Most Chinese companies have very little, if any, brand awareness in the US market. The critical point is for Chinese companies to launch aggressive marketing campaigns and partner with high profile organizations for maximum visibility. Solid names, brand awareness, and high quality products will all lift up the previously tarnished reputation of shoddy Chinese products. For the games industry it is similar: few Americans have heard of Chinese online game developers or operators, but their games are coming to America and the rest of the world - and some are even here already. There is a golden opportunity for these cash-rich online game operators to strategically market their games outside of China so that they can gain the support of gamers everywhere.

Angry Birds is taking China by storm and according to an article in China Daily, Rovio will open its first studio outside of Finland on October 18th in Shanghai. Rovio has announced that it will partner with China Mobile to organize a nationwide Angry Birds contest in Beijing by year's end. There are other big plans in the works, such as hard goods that Rovio hopes will outsell Disney's products in China. According to the China Daily article, a search on Taobao.com for Angry Birds will produce 170,000 results - but most of the sellers of the products are not official licensees and most of the products are counterfeit. The momentum for mobile games is very strong lately in China, which is one reason that Niko Partners has boosted our coverage of that sector by adding proprietary surveys about mobile devices and gaming behavior to our myriad of primary data sources.

Take a look at a good infographic by The Motley Fool regarding Apple's strong surge in China in the past year. This is a considerable factor in the surge in mobile device gaming that Niko has mentioned previously. Nearly 9% of Apple's revenue of the last 12 months was generated in China, and it seems quite likely that the growth trend will continue.