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. 

On Friday, September 28th, Niko attended China 2.0 at Stanford, a conference where Niko's own Lisa Hanson has been a speaker two times in past years. We listened to panels and presentations from a variety of speakers, the most interesting of whom was Governor Jon Huntsman, former US Ambassador to China and Governor of Utah. He spoke about the rising entrepreneur class in China, and when all of these entrepreneurs get going how China will be forever changed. He spoke about international economic policy guiding all policy for China and how other countries should also abide by that premise. Mr. Huntsman's recollection for historical events, dates and their implications in Chinese history was truly impressive. 

He also clearly stated that his own daughters easily got through the Chinese wall of blocked Internet sites (presumably by using a VPN, as most people who want to access sites outside the wall do), and that many people do visit sites that are ostensibly banned (as noted in this article). However, PLEASE NOTE that Niko does not think that "everyone" climbs the great firewall (the vast majority of locals DO NOT). If you want to, you will get a VPN, and then you will be recorded as coming from outside of China. So, we highly doubt the data in the article published in Business Week (and that data has been cited elsewhere this week too).  

In addition, we watched grown men dance to "Gangnam Style" and get out of breath for their presentations, and then we heard a lot about mobile gaming in China (which happened to include a great deal of discussion about mobile gaming in Japan). Niko stands by our own data for the $900 million mobile games market we forecast for 2012, but to be fair to other sources, the gentleman presenter from China-based mobile developer RedAtoms says that it will be more like $200 million (which is not even possible).

The Philippines had a few cyber crime laws on the books before this year, notably RA 9995 (Anti-Photo and Voyeurism Act of 2009), RA 9775 (Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009), and RA 9208 (Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003). Recently, the Philippine government added one more law that has critics screaming for a repeal: RA 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012). They worry that the language of the new law will make it possible to be arrested for libel by writing a post on Facebook that someone doesn't like (among other things). The law should help with cyber piracy and at least it will support the establishment of an Office of Cybercrime within the Department of Justice.  The law would make Internet fraud and stealing identities over the Internet illegal, so hackers taking other gamers' accounts and virtual goods would be at risk.  

The US will hold a presidential election on November 6th, and the People's Republic of China will convene its 18th National Party Congress on the same day. Here are two articles worth reading to help you understand what is in store with the congress and the transition of power: one from the New York Times and one from Businessweek. 

China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group had its IPO on the NASDAQ last Wednesday, after a long period of time without a Chinese company listing on that exchange. The company makes some claims about its importance in China's mobile games market, but we cannot confirm or refute those claims at this time. Meanwhile, one of the articles written about the listing cites some data points about the company's mobile games worth reading: China Mobile Games has 450 mobile games, of which 314 are played on smartphones, including mobile device that run on Apple's (AAPL) iOS and Google's (GOOG) Android. As of Jan. 1, China Mobile Games said it had 397 games and 9.6 million paying users on smartphones, in addition to 29.1 million paying "feature phone" users who play games that come pre-loaded on nonsmartphone cellphones, according to its U.S. regulatory filings. Niko Partners notes that there are far more paying users on feature phones than on smartphones.