Niko Partners in The Economist

The Economist published a Special Report on Pacific trade containing several short articles pertaining to China. Niko’s Lisa Hanson was mentioned in reference to Tencent and the growth of the games market.

The Battle to be China’s #1 Video Platform

This chart from China Internet Watch compiles data from iResearch comparing total hours of time spent on China’s top 10 online video websites in July and August of this year. At the moment, there are four major players dominating online viewing comprised of Youku, iQiYi, Letv, and Sohu. In terms of the most popular video platform overall, Youku and iQiYi have traded the top position over recent months with neither website maintaining more than a 10% lead over the other. With investment backing from Baidu and Xiaomi, iQiYi has been aggressive in growing their audience this year – licensing global hits such as The Hunger Games, The Vampire Diaries and Korean mega-hit, My Love From the Star, which will see the Hulu-like platform double its user base in 2014. [iResearch China via CIW, and we found it on ResonanceChina.com]

China’s Subway Portal to WoW

Here is a fun one we saw on Polygon.com: Blizzard has introduced a real world “Dark Portal” to one of Shanghai’s busiest subway stations, based on the World of Warcraft Warlords of Draenor expansion.

Hunger Games Release Date Canceled

According to Sinocism, “Hunger Games” release date has been canceled in China, likely due to “revolutionary” political content. The move was regarded as “sudden” and arrests have been made in Thailand over Hunger Games related actions.