Niko Partners Proud to be a Media Partner for Casual Connect Asia 2016
Location: Hard Rock Hotel, 8 Sentosa Gateway, Sentosa Island, Singapore
Founded: 2012
Professional Attendees: 1,000 | Speakers: 150
Indie Prize Showcase Teams: 120
Location: Sentosa Resorts World Ballroom in Singapore.
Get to know the developers and decision-makers of some of the world’s fastest-growing games markets from May 17th through the 19th. Founded in 2012, Casual Connect Asia is the largest professionals-only gaming conference in Southeast Asia. Roughly 1,200 attendees and a 90-team strong Indie Prize Showcase will convene to spark their creativity with lectures, network with industry moguls and arm themselves with the best tools.
Form friendships and build alliances at Casual Connect’s networking events, including evening parties, mingles and the Indie Prize Awards Ceremony.
ID Verification for Videos in China
Starting on April 18, 20 online video streaming platforms, including Sina, Baidu, Youku and Sohu, officially started to require ID verification for video producers and hosts, and hosts must be at least 18 years old. According to the “Beijing Internet Streaming Industry Self-discipline Convention” that these platforms jointly published, they have also started ID verification on existing video producers and hosts and aim to complete this effort by June 1.
Baidu to Establish Online Search Subsidiary
According to Marbridge Consulting, Baidu is planning on establishing an online search subsidiary. They are also in the process of restructuring their company to focus more effort on internet finances, driverless cars, artificial intelligence and other new areas of business.
China’s Mobile Online MAU Growth Rate
Gamelook quoted some data from the 2016 Spring App Ranking Report published by QuestMobile. Just like what QuestMobile pointed out in the annual report they published in January, China’s mobile online MAU growth rate is still around 1%. Compared with March 2015, current iOS online MAU increased by 50mm, whereas Android online MAU increased by 90mm. This shows that iOS has a higher growth rate than Android. More than half of the mobile online users are from tier-1 and tier-2 cities, 23.5% are from tier-3 and 21.6% are from tier-4 ciites. Samsung is still the #1 cell phone brand in term of user/city penetration, followed by Xiaomi and Huawei. Huawei’s user penetration in tier-1 cities is already higher than Xiaomi, which indicates that Huawei is growing fast on high-end users level and might surpass Xiaomi soon. OPPO and VIVO have higher user penetration in tier 2-4 cities, especially in tier-3 and tier-4 cities.
CMGE Purchased by Zhejian Century Huatong Group
China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group (CMGE), one of the leading game developers and publishers in China, recently completed a merger with Pegasus Merger Sub Limited and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pegasus Investment (taking itself off the US stock exchange in the process). Now, the company has announced that they will be purchased by Zhejian Century Huatong Group (an automotive plastic parts company) for RMB 6.5 billion (approximately 1 billion USD). CMGE intends to release 13 mobile games in 2016 and nine in 2017, most of them being IP-based games using popular licenses such as Assassin’s Creed, Dragon Ball Z, The Walking Dead and more.
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