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. 

According to the three main mobile operators' recent announcements about subscribers, as reported in Marbridge Daily, there are now 280.26 million 3G subscribers in China. Of these, China Mobile has 40.81% market share, China Unicom 31.33%, and China Telecom 27.86%. China Mobile has 63.4% of the total mobile base, China Unicom 21.9% and China Telecom 14.67%. Both China Unicom and China Telecom are gaining share against China Mobile for total mobile users.  

The online payments market is critical for online gaming and it can be complex especially when there are cross-border transactions to countries with unique banking regulations. One of Niko's observations about the Southeast Asian online and mobile games markets is that sorting out efficient online payments may be the key to success of an online games company. There are some country-specific payments companies, such as INDOMOG in Indonesia, and then there are regional companies such as Cherry Credits (Singapore) and MOL (Malaysia). MOL is a giant in the payments market, and according to this Tech In Asia article, MOL has just purchased 50% stake in NganLuong in Vietnam, further expanding its reach throughout SEA.  

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released new regulations regarding pre-installed apps on mobile devices. China is notorious for a complex regulatory environment, but so far the mobile games companies have been fairly shielded from intense regulatory scrutiny. With this new announcement, the MIIT seeks to prevent pre-installed software that essentially can track, collect or modify user information without express permission of the user, anything that is prohibited to be distributed by telecoms regulations, anything that infringes on information security, and more.