Alibaba Reorganizes Entertainment Business

Alibaba Reorganizes Entertainment Business

Alibaba Holdings Group Ltd. is undergoing consolidation of their entertainment efforts by rounding up Youku Tudou Inc., UCWeb Inc., Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd, and company’s sports, games, literature, music and digital entertainment divisions into a single group. There will also be a $10 billion yuan ($1.48 billion USD) fund for new projects within this group.

Will American Football Be The Next Big Video Game Trend In China?

The popularity of sports in the real world tends to lead directly to the demand for PC online, mobile and console digital games that represent those sports. China has experienced rising success with some professional and amateur Western sports, including soccer and basketball, and the success of related digital games has followed. Will American football be the next Western sport to gain traction on Chinese playing fields, and subsequently in digital games? Read more about this in Lisa’s latest Forbes article. Follow her there too!

Apple’s Revenues Decline in China

Apple’s latest revenue numbers highlights the company’s third consecutive decline in quarterly revenue and profit – domestic competition from local companies like Huawei, Oppo, ZTE and Xiaomi are growing in market share. Apple recorded $8.79 billion in revenue in China in Q3 2016 down from $12.51 billion in Q3 2015.

South Korean eSports Head Aiming To Secure Olympic Status

The President of South Korea eSports Association (KeSPA), Jun Byung-hun, recognized the potential of eSports a few years ago, and the importance of digital games in Korea many years before that. As a chief of his country and the global e-sports’ governing body, Jun said his ultimate goal is to make e-sports an official Olympic event.”eSports have been regarded as a next-generation business model throughout the world and this tendency can be witnessed in many places in Europe, Asia and North America as many countries and companies are increasingly investing in it,” Jun said during an interview with The Korea Times at the headquarters of the KeSPA and IeSF. “The IeSF has been working with its membership countries to solidify the status of eSports, alongside other sporting events like baseball and football. Our biggest goal is to secure membership on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make eSports an official Olympic event,” he said.

Amazon Launches Prime Service in China

Amazon Prime is heading to China, with notable differences from the service available in other markets: no video will be offered but there is an unlimited free domestic shipping plan and emphasis on international shipping through this program. The service will cost approximately 388 yuan a year ($58 USD) but whether it’ll be able to compete with the likes of JD.com and Alibaba remains to be seen. According to Slashdot, “the most popular products for Chinese consumers to buy on Amazon are apparel, shoes, baby, toys, home, kitchen and beauty, the company said. The Prime China orders from Amazon’s Global Store will be processed at Amazon fulfillment centers in the United States, then flown to China and delivered to the customer’s door via Amazon’s global logistics network. Amazon says it will deliver the packages to 82 Chinese cities within five to nine days.”

SKT crowned 2016 League of Legends World Champions

South Korean team SKT Telecom T1 has won the 2016 world championships of the League of Legends (LoL) video game.For its 3-2 victory over a team backed by phone-maker Samsung, SKT’s five members shared a prize of $2m between them. The win is the third time in four years that SKT has taken the title. It also won the title in 2015. The final ran for six hours and was held in front of almost 20,000 LoL fans at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. At Niko we have written about LoL frequently, particularly regarding the importance of the game in eSports in Asia.

Niko Partners on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter @nikochina to see these comments in real time as we publish them! @ZhugeEx is Niko analyst Daniel Ahmad – his opinions are his own and he has a very informative blog and Twitter feed. Here are a few of our tweets from last week: