Thai King Bhumibol's Health Unstable King Bhumibol has been on the throne of Thailand since 1946, making him the world's longest reigning monarch, but he has spent much of the last year in hospital. He has recently recovered from a respiratory infection and is now being prepared for haemodialysis, a procedure used to treat kidney failure. [...]
Riot Games Celebrates 10th Anniversary Riot Games, famed developer of the hit MOBA League of Legends, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month and also the full acquisition of the studio by China's largest (and most valuable) Internet company, Tencent. Check out the full overview in the LA Times, including quotes from Niko's Lisa Hanson and [...]
Battle of Social Networks in China According to an article on InsideGamesAsia, there are many social networks in Asia whose popularity changes by country. Wechat from Tencent essentially owns China's social network market. In Japan and Taiwan, Line is known to be the primary social app, while Kakaotalk has been stubbornly clenching onto its throne in [...]
Intel, Tencent & Haier Announce the TGP Box At CES Asia, Intel, Tencent and Haier jointly announced the TGP Box, a gaming console that is designed for living room entertainment. Haier will manufacture the hardware and Intel will provide advanced computing platforms including full support for the Intel RealSense technology and "smart home innovative technology." Tencent [...]
FUZE Console Launches in China FUZE launched "Zhanfu (Tomohawk) F1", an Android-based gaming and entertainment console, and the company announced 76 games that they have signed licensing deals, including Assassin's Creed Chronicles and Hawken. The Tomohawk F1 is similar to a microconsole whose size is smaller than regular consoles, and it is priced well but it [...]
China's Mobile Users & Mobile Gamers According to the most updated data from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the number of telephone users in China reached 1.54 billion households by the end of December 2015, of which mobile phone users accounted for 1.3 billion households and 4G users accounted for 386.2 million households. [...]
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 [...]
