Xiaofeng Zeng will attend ChinaJoy in Shanghai July 31 - August 4, 2014. Please contact Xiaofeng or Lisa to set up a meeting and learn about how Niko's research services can help your company succeed in Asia.  

Note: Beware all you ChinaJoy travelers - this is a summer of massive flight delays in and out of Pudong (and Hongqiao) airports in Shanghai due to "military exercises."

A Chinese competitive gaming team won the biggest purse to date in professional gaming by playing Dota 2. The tournament was The International, and this is the 4th year for that tournament. The winning team is called Newbee and is comprised of 5 young men from China who each won $1 million in the tournament, out of a total payout of $10 million. It was held in Seattle's Key Arena with 17,000 seats and sold out in less than an hour, and was aired live on ESPN 3.     

Alibaba announced the launch of its online store in the US and its investment in chat tool Tango. Tango will begin to distribute mobile games and plans to acquire mobile game developers. This could be Alibaba's push to launch games via mobile chat in the US, a model that is wildly successful in China and throughout Asia with WeChat, KakaoTalk, Viber, and more. 

As we tweeted this week, the 34th CNNIC Internet usage report was published this week with statistics covering January-June 2014. There are 632 million Internet users, including 527 million accessing via mobile devices. Now the rate of Internet access via mobile devices exceeds that of access from PCs. 

The number of Internet users is greater than the population of all countries in the world except for China and India. In fact, the #3 and #4 most populous countries in the world are the US and Indonesia, and the combined total of the populations of those two countries is roughly the same as simply the number of people in China who access the Internet via a mobile device. 

Regulations for consoles could get tighter based on the latest edict by GAPPRFT to increase regulations on China's Internet TV industry. 

According to Marbridge Daily, "GAPPRFT's current criticisms of the Internet TV industry are as follows:

1. Proscribed partnerships with online video websites: Online video websites can only act as content providers, and are not permitted to set up dedicated content zones or channels on Internet TV platforms. Additionally, licensed platform operators must remove any foreign content provided by online video websites that has not been specifically approved by GAPPRFT;

2. Unapproved electronic program guides (EPGs): Broadcast and control platform EPG pages do not correspond to the EPGs approved by GAPPRFT. According to Internet TV regulations, any EPG updates must be approved by GAPPRFT;

3. Unapproved terminal products: All Internet TV terminal products must be approved by GAPPRFT. Currently, a large portion of Internet TV terminals have not been approved;

4. Prohibited partnerships with telecom operators: Broadcast and control platform operators are prohibited from cooperating with telecom operators to offer real-time broadcast television. Operators must remove any real-time broadcasting services from their platforms immediately;

5. Illegal online terminal sales channels: GAPPRFT does not currently permit Internet TV terminals to be sold online, but all Internet TV terminals are currently available through online channels.

6. Partnerships with Internet firms are under investigation: GAPPRFT has demanded that platform operators cease any partnerships with Internet firms that are currently under investigation by Chinese regulators."