Niko News is a filter of the most important news items and bits of information concerning the games markets of China and Southeast Asia uncovered by Niko each week. Our multilingual analysts review dozens of news sources from several countries, and as a team Niko reduces the long list of articles to 3-4 "must read" items for you. We then provide our Niko analysis to these items, making them relevant and highlighting the importance for the market. This service is one of the many ways we help distill the confusing, conflicting information about the games markets of Asia for our clients and readers. 

Somehow China Joy was even bigger than ever in this 10th anniversary of both the expo and Niko Partners. Lisa Hanson has attended every China Joy since the first one in January 2004 in Beijing, except last year when she didnt make it to Shanghai but the local team participated and spoke at two of the conference tracks. This year Lisa gave a keynote speech at the World Wireless Expo and Conference on the topic of Chinese Mobile Gamers. Xiaofeng Zeng, a senior Niko team member in Shanghai, was a panelist in the Media Forum of China Games Business Conference, another of the four conferences under the China Joy umbrella. 

Mobile games and webgames were certainly the buzz words at China Joy. In addition, the PC online game operators had vibrant booths with volumes louder than any human ear could easily process. The show is so loud and crowded that it is difficult to convey in this write-up. There were 5 halls, plus a hall for B2B discussions, and a company's placement in the halls was determined by the amount of spending on the show as well as their stature in the games market. Hall 1 was all of the huge local online game operators plus some big foreign companies such as EA (including PopCap) and Blizzard (including Activision). 

While every chaotic China Joy has hundreds of scantily clad booth babes, this year Shanda had "booth dudes" and that was a surprise. It was difficult to explore any of the booths because it was literally body-to-body and so loud. In the conference area, held in the Kerry Center Hotel, there was a steady stream of sessions in the 4 different conferences, with no shortage of speakers. The conference is a magnet for industry professionals worldwide who care about China's market and the discussions held in the hotel lobby or at the many parties or over meals at restaurants were important and informative. In addition to new game announcements, the overwhelming theme of conversations was webgames, even though the booths mostly offered demos and peaks at MMOGs.  Niko continues to publish research reports each month on the Chinese games market as well as monthly data on games usage in Internet cafés. The market is huge and growing - so get there!

We are bullish on China's mobile hardware market and mobile games market, and are not swayed by the quarter-on-quarter decline of Apple's Chinese revenue announced last week. The iPhone 4S had come out the previous quarter, and that could be one reason for the lower quarterly results in Q2. Regardless of Apple's success the Chinese smartphone market is booming, with about 60 million smartphones already in use by our estimate made a few months ago, and some analysts say that 75 million more were sold in H1 2012 with nearly that number expected to sell in H2 too. The leading app category for smartphones is mobile games, so the tremendous growth in units will directly impact the use of games. Keep in mind that some people own more than one handset yet only play games on one. Read our recent Mobile Games report for more info.  

This article, about small advertising agencies in China, sums up why you should be paying attention to this market: in 2011, it was responsible for around 30% of the world's economic growth and its middle class alone is 400 million people strong. This country alone accounts for 6% of the world's consumer spending and that number goes up as every day goes by. Niko agrees with the main points of this article - they're not only applicable to small advertising agencies, but also any company seeking to do business in China: do you're reading (buy our research), pay and learn as you go, and be authentic.