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Every week, our analysts review dozens of news sources, from multiple countries, in multiple languages. From this, we give you the stories that are most important, and the analysis to tell you why.
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Steam Rumored to Come to China
An article in 17173.com states that Steam appears to be gearing up for a China launch in 2015, and is currently in regulatory review for that to happen. There is a simplified Chinese version of Steam already but the digital distribution platform has not yet been approved for the Chinese market. There will likely be content restrictions in China (ie, denial of access) for some of the game titles that Steam legally distributes globally.
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Shanda's Restructuring
Shanda's PR department quelled rumors that Shanda plans to spin off a division to Tencent, saying that will not happen. He also said that Shanda intends to stay in the game industry even after going private and undergoing corporate restructuring.
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M&A for Mobile Online Game Companies
An article in 17173.com discussed that the M&A market for mobile online games companies is particularly active with regard to cross-industry mergers. The article says that of the 213 transactions of A-listed companies related to mobile games, 96 transactions were cross-industry. 32 of these were related to film/TV, games, Internet, totaling RMB 63 billion in transaction fees, which is equal to 1/3 of all fees for that set of transactions.
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Glu's China MD Joins Ski-Mobi
Sky-mobi is a platform for mobile games distribution in China, with a pre-installed app on tens of millions of phones and a big reach into cities in Tiers 3 and 4. The company also recently launched a service to compete with Yodo1, iDreamSky and others to help foreign mobile games launch in China. Now the Hangzhou-based, NASDAQ-traded company is pushing its international thinking even further by hiring Glu Mobile's managing director for China to lead its games division.
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KakaoTalk Launches KakaoPay
Mobile payment providers are in a hot sector. Apple announced ApplePay, making PayPal nervous and investors wary, and in Korea KakaoTalk announced KakaoPay as a mobile payment service. In China we have seen TenPay and AliPay, among others.
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ABOUT NIKO
Niko News is just one part of the strategy and expertise offered by Niko Partners to help our clients better understand and successfully navigate the thriving games markets of China and Southeast Asia.
Niko Partners is the leading provider of market intelligence, custom research, and consulting services focused on the games industries in China and Southeast Asia. Since 2003 we have provided critical information to the world's leading game publishers, developers, hardware makers, and game service providers as well as to government policymakers, trade associations, and institutional investors.
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