Google Tests Out China's FTZ There have been many rumors brewing recently about Google possibly reentering China in 2016, leading with Google Play. We cannot confirm these rumors to be true at this time, but we did take note of something mentioned in Sinocism this week, that had come from the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ [...]
IMF Includes Renminbi as a Main World Currency The IMF's announced its decision to include the Renminbi as a reserve currency in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket of currencies alongside only the Yen, Dollar, Euro and Pound. This is a reflection of the opening up of the Chinese economy and the release of currency controls, [...]
Regulations for TV Set-Top Boxes in China The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) announced new regulations for TV set-top boxes including a list of 81 banned 3rd party apps. Taobao's Tmall division, which certifies that all products sold on Tmall are official and authentic, said that it will upgrade its operating [...]
Tencent Surges in Q3 Tencent had its highest profit in Q3 2015 thanks to messaging services, video and digital games. Games via PCs and mobile devices both helped boost net income to $1.2 billion for the 3-month period. While costs are rising, that is still impressive net income to say the least. There were 650 million [...]
Forbes Feature on Garena A good article on history of Garena, Southeast Asia's answer to Tencent and Alibaba, and what brought Forrest Li to found it. Lisa Hanson is quoted in the article as well. Steam's Presence in China Steam Spy's data shows that an average game on Steam sells 320,000 units. Different countries have different [...]
MIIT's Goals for China China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced three major goals that need to be achieved by the end of 2017: 1. All households in cities should have access to 100M internet provided by optical fiber, and all cities and countryside should be covered by 4G internet; 2. The average broadband [...]
Although it may not have the international name recognition of Google or Facebook, Tencent is an industry titan. The company, headquartered in Shenzhen, China and publicly traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a decade, was valuedat just over US$150 billion last year. It was also the fifth-largest Internet company in the world and the [...]
FIFA Online 3 FIFA Online 3 (developed by Electronic Arts) is operated by Tencent in China, and reached PCU of more than 500,000 this month. Xiaoyi Ma, VP of Tencent Games, said that sports games like NBA2K Online and FIFA Online 3 comprise a smaller niche segment of the online games market in China, and this [...]
Niko Partners on CNBC Lisa Hanson was a featured guest on CNBC Asia on October 28th. The interview included lots of questions about mobile vs PC online gaming in SEA and China. For more updates, follow Niko Partners on Twitter. The 2014 China Rich List It pays to be a leader in an Internet, digital games [...]
MOL Global's IPO MOL Global had its initial public offering (NASDAQ: MOLG) on October 9th, and raised $169 million. MOL is the largest e-payment provider in SE Asia, covering 13 countries and 920,000 physical sales spots in 4 continents. It is the largest e-payment service provider in SEA's games industry, and a vast number of SEA [...]
