China’s Top 100 Internet Companies

GameLook reported that Internet Society of China and MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China) jointly released a “China’s Top 100 Internet Companies” list. The top 10 are Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, JD.com, Qihoo360, Sohu, NetEase, Sina, Ctrip (Xie Cheng), and Fang.com. It’s worth noticing that several gaming companies also appear in the Top 100 list, such as Perfect World (#12), Shanda Entertainment (#16), 37.com (#23), 4399.com (#25), iDreamSky (#41), and Giant Interactive (#59). Since 2013, Internet Society of China and MIIT have released a Top 100 Internet Companies list annually, based on public companies’ financial reports, data reported voluntarily by the companies, and 3rd party research results. In 2014, the Top 100 companies generated RMB 573.5 billion in revenue, which accounts for 20.5% of total information consumption revenue. The Top 100 companies’ revenue increased by 47% YoY, contributing 42.3% of the growth in information consumption.

DigiPen Establishes Studio in Singapore

Singapore is a telecom and tech hub in Southeast Asia, and now DigiPen interactive media university opened a development and game publishing studio, DigiPen Game Studios. Nintendo is supporting it, along with the Media Development Authority (MDA). Despite the current limitation of developing only for Nintendo, we think that this will help to build the base of developers in the region.

BRICS Countries Launch Bank

A new bank dedicated to the emerging BRICS countries opened for business in China’s commercial hub of Shanghai on Tuesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported. While it denies trying to compete with other multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, some say that it is the true intention. China is also setting up a new multilateral lender, the Asian Infrastructure Bank (AIIB), in Beijing. 50 other founding member countries will be part of it and China will be the largest shareholder at 30%. The US and Japan have declined to join the AIIB.

China’s FTZ Attracting Investors

China’s 4 new free trade zones are attracting overseas investors, and this also is important when we look at the console market. Sony and Microsoft may be suffering with low sales of their PS4 and Xbox One legal Chinese versions so far, but the fact that these companies were allowed to have their console products enter the market at all after such a long ban is important. Now the FTZ that started it all, Shanghai FTZ, has served as a model for the additional FTZs and the country is opening up to foreign companies and foreign investment. Hopefully consoles will succeed, but other products are also sure to benefit from a more open market.

Niko Partners on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter @nikochina to see these comments in real time as we publish them! Here are a few of our tweets from last week:

  • Games are Key to Consoles Succeeding in China https://nikopartners.com/games-are-key-to-consoles-succeeding-in-china/ …
  • Xiaomi unveils smart running shoes, starting at just $30 https://www.techinasia.com/li-ning-xiaomi-smart-running-shoes/ … via @Techinasia
  • KongZhong Announces Receipt of a Proposal to Acquire the Company http://insidegamesasia.biz/kongzhong-announces-receipt-of-a-proposal-to-acquire-the-company/ …