|
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.
|
Tencent Beats Q1 Estimates
Sinocism shared data from Bloomberg Business Week regarding Tencent earnings beating estimates on surging smartphone games: WeChat had 549 million monthly active users and the mobile version of QQ had 603 million users at the end of the quarter. Tencent is helping make money from instant messaging by adding payment services and making it easier to access e-commerce. Online advertising sales more than doubled to 2.7 billion yuan in the quarter, the company said.
|
Sinocism also summed up how "WeChat is Tencent's ace in China's online entertainment race" per a Reuters article: You clearly see the growth of (Tencent's) position," said TCL Multimedia CEO Hao Yi, who works with many of China's Internet companies, about the firm's video business. "A couple of years ago they were nowhere. The WeChat thing, indeed, this is a killer." In recent months, Alibaba and Tencent have taken their rivalry overseas, both setting up offices in Los Angeles to slug it out for programming deals with Hollywood studios and producers. While both groups have financial firepower, WeChat could be a clincher for Tencent in winning deals with content producers.
|
President Joko Widodo on Sunday inaugurated the Rp3.6 trillion ($275 million) Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua Cable System (SMPCS), a fiber-optic network meant to improve Eastern Indonesia's telecommunications connectivity. The cable system is a part of the state-owned telecommunication firm Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom)'s plans to connect the entire archipelago with fiber-optic technology by the end of this year. The SMPCS stretches for 8,772 kilometers across 34 districts in North Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, North Maluku, Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara, West Papua and Papua. So far, Telkom has installed 6,193 kilometers of fiber-optic cable and it plans to finish the remainder by September. Niko's takeaway from this announcement is that The SMPCS network project will provide dependable internet connection to Eastern Indonesia, a relatively untouched market especially for online games.
|
Malaysia's deputy minister for transportation and sports, Datuk Lee Kim Shin, says that there are at least 9.9 million PC Gamers in Malaysia. "Our statistics shows that four out of ten current Malaysian citizens are PC Gamers, that number does not even include mobile and console gamers," he said. He also mentions that most of PC Gamers, especially those who are active in the esport environment, are aged around 13 to 35 year old. He believes that demand for eSports will continue to grow.
|
Naruto OL, the webgame that Tencent developed using Naruto IP licensed from Bandai Namco, has officially launched open beta. This is the only official Naruto webgame in the world. The game is a core IP product reflecting Tencent's "Trans-media Entertainment" strategy.
|
New IDC data shows iPhone surging and Samsung slipping in China. Samsung's share fell 53% in the past year, while Apple's grew 62%, mostly due to sales of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Source: IDC, 2015
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
