A report, The video games market in China: Moving online, produced by KPMG and the Telecoms Research Project Corporate (TRPC) in Hong Kong and Singapore, noted that growth in the number of online game subscribers is now paralleling that of the Internet and mobile markets.

KPMG, citing a 2007 report from Xinhua News Agency, said China’s online gaming market was worth about $970 million, with over 36 million gamers. Made-in-China online games accounted for $20 million in export revenues, and also commanded a 65% share of the domestic market.

China has been dependent on games produced elsewhere but is now producing its own.

Peter Lovelock, TRPC’s director and deputy director of the Telecoms Research Project, said, ‘The market is developing rapidly in China and there is ample room for further growth and development.’

Another significant trend highlighted in the KPMG report is the increasing use of mobile devices to engage in online multiplayer games.
Source: Business Week

Some points from a report issued by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC):

Internet Cafes are a major internet access point for younger Chinese people. 33.5% of primary and middle school Internet users report accessing the Web from i-cafes, and 47.8% of Chinese netizens under-25 do so. Internet cafes are the primary point of access for 59.5% of rural Netizens, compared with 43.5% of urban users.

The average Chinese netizen spends 16.2 hours per week online. Non-students in the under-25 set are far above this, with an average of 20.8 hours per week. College students average 14.8 hours per week, while primary through high school students average 6.4 hours a week.

CNNIC reports that 73.7% of the Chinese youth internet users under 18 play online games, and primary through middle school students are playing games for an average of 3.3 hours a week. Among middle school students, 5.5% are spending more than 10 hours a week on online games.

The report claims that almost 27.1% of youth Netizens have ‘an inclination toward Internet addiction.’

31% of youth Netizens report having used mobile phones to access the Internet in the six months prior to the survey. College students are the heaviest mobile Internet users, with 40.2% having accessed the Internet during that period.

When it comes to messaging youth, but of course, leads the way. 91.3% for the under-25 against the national average of 81.4%.

CNNIC reports that over 60% of college students report having posted messages on BBSs — 26.6 percentage points above the same figure for overall Chinese Internet users.
Source: Digital Watch

Baidu.com is going to make a serious move on the online game sector in China.

The country’s No. 1 Internet search engine provider has already announced expansion into the instant messaging and online auction business.

Now, through cooperation with five game operators, including Shanda Entertainment, Baidu has launched its game site.

It is initially offering six browser games: Zongheng Tianxia, Tiankong Zuo’an, Fangbianmian Sanguo, Luanwu Chunqiu, Empire, and XBA Manager. You can see the basic idea at http://youxi.baidu.com.

At the moment these are free altough it is unlikely that will long continue.

Baidu, in a statement, said, ‘The games are Web-based, therefore they don’t require high-standard computers. The games on Baidu’s platform are green and healthy, without too much blood.’

Whether that is a sure and certain way to success is open to debate.

China’s online game market revenue was RMB12.8 billion ($1.83 billion) in 2007, and the figure will hit RMB40.1 billion in 2011, according to Analysys International, a Beijing-based IT consulting firm.

Robin Li, Baidu chief executive and chairman said Baidu’s new services aim to improve user loyalty and profitability of the company’s core search business.

Robin Lin said Baidu Hi, its new instant message tool, has been in public testing, and Baidu’s auction Website will debut this year.
Source: China View

Perfect World, a leading online game developer and operator in China, is to collaborate with Intel and Haier Information Technology on a marketing campaign.

As a part of the collaboration, Perfect World’s ‘Chi Bi,’ the Company’s first 3D massively multi-player online role playing game (”MMORPG”) based on Chinese history during the famous Three Kingdoms period, will be the key visual component of the campaign.

This has been designed to show-off Haier’s latest Runyan Rui Zhi T68 notebook computers and Spark LightRunyan personal computers featuring the latest Intel processor technology with the 45 nm Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

Fast computers are not normally used at their full speed — it is not needed — until you play a MMORPG game when you need all the grunt you can lay your hands on.

No doubt, despite its historic setting, ‘Chi Bi’ will test it to the full.

It also gives lovely marketing and publicity hook for the three companies. And, ice-cream on top, there is a movie being made at the same time.
Source: PR NewsWire

Giant Interactive Group is a major online game developer and operator and this is very much a boom business. It has now opened a new research and development facility in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

Hui Yuan, Giant’s Vice President of R&D, said, ‘The Southwest region has among the highest concentration of online game R&D talent in China. With this new facility in Chengdu, one of the largest cities in the Southwest, we plan to attract the top local game designers and engineers to join our team, thus reinforcing our R&D strength. We are excited by the addition of the Chengdu facility, which will specialize in cutting edge 3D graphics engines and technologies, to complement our existing 2D and 2.5D graphics teams.’

All of which is more important than you think. As an excercise in programming and design an online game is either world class or it is not going to be played. A very, very high order of programming skills is needed and this has to be combined with graphics that work and attract. This is a staggering job and the amount of talent required is practically beyond measurement.

Hui Yuan said, ‘Giant already has one of the most advanced server technologies in the Chinese online game industry, a proprietary technology which allows for one million concurrent users to play together in a single shard in our new game, Giant Online. And, as previously announced, we recently partnered with Huawei Technologies to research additional advancements in server platforms.’

The last bit means we will see it on mobile phones, probably early next year.

Giant is one of China’s leading online game developers and operators in terms of revenues, focusing on massively multi-player online role playing games. Giant’s game, ZT Online, illustrated here, was voted the most popular online game in China in 2006 according to IDC.

Two more are on the way — King of Kings III and Empire of Sports.
Source: PR NewsWire

BDA China, a Beijing-based technology consulting and research firm, claims that China’s Internet population has overtaken the United States’ to become the world’s biggest with about 220 million web surfers.

Liu Bin, an analyst with BDA China said, ‘There are two major drivers. One is continued strong growth in broadband users. The other is the popularity of Internet cafes in relatively small cities.’

And that is key to the situation.

Comparing China to the United States leads to all sort of false surmises. The US has occupied the number one position since the birth of the Internet as a network of computers under the auspices of the US Department of Defence in 1969 as Arpanet.
While China may have the large numbers for them to be of any value they have to be dissected. And the fact is the growth in figures cones, at the moment, for Internet cafes, and the use in Internet cafes is very heavily skewed to multi-player games.
This is changing starting with the big cities and spreading outwards. But the Internet cafe still accounts for a major slab on Internet use which is simply not the case in the United States.

Liu Bin said, ‘There will be more users using Internet cafes. In some small towns, many users don’t have broadband access at home, but will go to Internet cafes to play online games.’

This is true.

On the other hand the blog count is astounding and some figures put it so high that every other Chinese Internet user has a blog. Which cannot be true but suggests the size of the issue.

Beijing is worried about the Internet. President Hu Jintao called last year for efforts to ‘purify’ the Internet. Now, in theory, only state-controlled entities will be allowed to operate websites that post audio-visual content. Yet it is proud of the fact that, properly used, the Internet can improve the knowledge and skills of the Chinese population.

One final point. In China it is not easy to make money from the Internet. You have to understand the market and work outside the envelope.

The China Internet Network Information Centre said in its latest half-yearly report from January: ‘In December 2007, the online shopping rate of Chinese netizens was 22.1%.

‘By contrast, the United States saw an online shopping rate of as high as 71 percent in August 2006.’

Sure. And you would find a ratio something like that in the use of credit cards. But that is now. Ten years ago in rural parts of Germany no one would accept a credit card. Cash or nothing.

Now it would be difficult to find a gasthaus that does not take credit cards.

China is still moving through a massive information and financial and social revolution. To say China has the most Internet users is pretty meaningless unless you specify the way the Internet is being used.
Source: AFP

Jerald J. Block, M.D. writing in the American Journal of Psychiatry claims that internet addiction appears to be a common disorder that merits inclusion in American standard list of mental disorders which is called DSM-V.

He further said that it consists of at least three subtypes: excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations, and e-mail/text messaging.

All of the variants share the following four components:

1) Excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives.
2) Withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible.
3) Tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use.
4) Negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue.

China is greatly concerned about the disorder. At a recent conference, Tao Ran, Ph.D., Director of Addiction Medicine at Beijing Military Region Central Hospital, reported 13.7% of Chinese adolescent Internet users meet Internet addiction diagnostic criteria — about 10 million teenagers. As a result, in 2007 China began restricting computer game use; current laws now discourage more than three hours of daily game use.

Unfortunately, Internet addiction is resistant to treatment, entails significant risks, and has high relapse rates. Moreover, it also makes co-morbid disorders less responsive to therapy.
Source: American Journal of Psychiatry

Giant Interactive Group, a New York-listed Chinese on-line gaming giant, reported RMB1.136 billion ($155.8 million) in net income for 2007, a 364.5% increase from the previous year.

The company said that on-line game net revenues for the fiscal year, mainly from the popular ZT Online game, stood at RMB1.52 billion.

Giant Interactive launched its first game, ZT Online, in January 2006. It is free to play but requires players to spend money to buy ‘equipment’, including weapons and armor.

Shi Yuzhu, the company’s chief executive officer and board chairman, said in the financial report that ‘2007 was a successful year for Giant, underscored by our IPO on the NYSE and significant top- and bottom-line growth.

‘We forbid minors to play our games in order to fulfill our company’s social responsibility, which at the same time, leads to a high average spending level per user.’

A company spokeswoman said ZT Online witnessed a climax of 1.07 million players playing at the same time, a commercial success only World of Warcraft and Fantasy Westward Journey had achieved before.

According to CCID Consulting, a market consultant, the on-line game market in China grew by 74.6% year on year to RMB11.4 billion in 2007. It is expected to reach RMB18.7 billion in 2008.
Source: China View

According to a report by the People’s Daily, more than 40% of Chinese netizens spend their weekends surfing the Internet, and at least 70% of them have psychological problems that can be categorized as the Internet syndrome. The information was disclosed in the recently published White Book on the Health Conditions of Chinese Netizens. And it is probably wrong. Using the Internet to describe an addiction to online gaming, MMORPG, is very common and demonstrably incorrect.

Thus if you rename the Internet syndrome as the Online Gaming syndrome you are much nearer the truth for this refers to a series of physical and mental problems caused by using the computer for too long time, including wrist pain, eye fatigue, cervical strain and depression.

According to the white book, more than 73% of the respondents say they feel dizzy and pain in their joints. Quite a lot of them also have sleep disorders like insomnia. Some 30% of them suffer from hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Nearly half of them complain about stomach pain.

But it simply is impossible to find someone suffering in this way from accessing Baidu or Alibaba or any other informational site. It all comes from multi-player Internet games like War of the Worlds. To call that gaming problem an Internet syndrome is misleading.
Source: China News

China is still trying to deal with what newspapers call ‘youngsters addicted to the Internet’. In fact, that is not the case. They are not addicted to the Internet as such. They are addicted to online multi-payer games or MMORPG (A massively (or massive) multiplayer online role-playing game) if you want to sound technical. Such addiction is not confined to China. It does not help when other media call it Internet addiction. It is multi-player online addiction which is a different thing altogether.

The 10-day camp, which is recruiting participants from Shanghai, will open at the end of the month. Potential campers, aged 14 to 22, can visit the site with their parents to take a psychological test and speak with professional counselors for evaluation. According to research by Shanghai’s youth affairs office, those seriously addicted to muti-player games should receive professional help, but this rarely happens.

A low level of this sort of addiction is believed to exist in more than 10% of Shanghai youngsters.

According to Dr Du Yasong from the Shanghai Mental Health Center, youngsters addicted to multi-player online games are characterized by poor social abilities, imitating others, or an inability to achieve their goals. When they get frustrated, they often turn to Internet games for a feeling of accomplishment. This seems logical.

The summer camp will bring together dozens of professionals with experience in 1,171 cases of such addiction. They hope to develop an intervention process, then use it in schools, families and communities.

And, in a joint effort with the camp, Shanghai’s education commission has organized a volunteer group to patrol the city’s streets to stop people under 18 entering Internet cafes.

In Hongkou District alone, the volunteer network covers more than 70 Internet cafes.

Overcoming addiction to multi-player online games does not mean staying away from computers. In Ludi Primary School in Jiading district, students surf the web under the guidance of teachers. In middle schools, students learn about web page design and the Shanghai World Expo 2010 on the Internet. None of which is helped by reports of Internet addiction, which it is not. The reports should be about multi-player on line games addiction so that the problem is more precisely defined.
Source: China View