Everything you need to know this week about the games market in Asia
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.
CES 2016 displayed a wide range of Chinese Android phones as well as a contentious hoverboard. There was not much news reported about Chinese gaming devices however, except of course for the fact that Android phones are one of the most important gaming devices in the world these days. American companies also are still worried about patent infringement issues by the Chinese though, as demonstrated by a Chinese company booth selling hoverboards being raided by US Marshals who accused the company of patent infringement.
The Game Publishers Association Publications Committee (GPC) of China's Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, and Gamma Data jointly released the "2015 China Mobile E-sports Industry Trend Report." The report says that in 2015 revenue for mobile e-Sports reached RMB 5.97 billion ($907 million), with user base of 196 million, and should still have big room for growth. 2015 mobile e-Sports revenue rose from RMB 4.02 billion ($611 million) in 2014 to RMB 5.97 billion in 2015, and the user base has doubled. The demographic of mobile e-Sports users is very similar to that of PC e-Sports, with 67.92% of the users between 18-25 years old. PC eSports generated 21 billion RMB ($3 billion), so the total is 27 billion ($4.1 billion) with more than 100 million Chinese players.
On a related note, globally, the e-sports industry is getting big. Really big, as described by TechCrunch. More people watch Twitch than CNN. Riot, Valve,Activision-Blizzard and EA all have e-sports initiatives. The largest tournaments attract tens of millions of viewers and offer multi-million dollar prize pools for the best players in games like League of Legends and Dota 2.
In another case of a Chinese game company that was publicly traded on a US exchange going private and then reemerging on a Chinese exchange, Perfect World seems poised to be next in line. Perfect World Pictures will acquire 100% of Shanghai Perfect World Network Technology for RMB 12 million. The plan is to list the shares on a Chinese exchange.
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.
