Chinese E-commerce Tax Rules Change

YouTube Gaming Enters Southeast Asia

YouTube’s answer to the massively popular Twitch streaming platform, has now entered Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, India and more. Gamers will be able to share streams of their favorite games and recorded gameplay sessions. As we predicted the rise of eSports for 2016, Google’s push for their streaming platform makes total sense

Alibaba’s Rugby Push in China

Following on the heels of the uptick in popularity of soccer and soccer-themed digital games in China, Alibaba has now set its sights on developing a rugby market for the middle kingdom. Alibaba will exclusively broadcast rugby games and content through its new sports division, Alisports. Their goal is to develop 1 million rugby players in China over the next ten years as they promote the sport and host more international events.

As of Wednesday last week, Alibaba is also reportedly the world’s largest retail platform as it has surpassed Wal-Mart’s annual sales. And, in Singapore Alibaba announced that it is investing $1B into ecommerce platform Lazada.

Alibaba Enters the eSports Scene

Alibaba has announced that they will be using their subsidiary, Alipay, to run a new Shanghai-based eSports tournament with the World Electronic Sports Games (WSEG). AliSports and YuuGames, subsidiary of YuuZoo, are planning to launch 1,200 eSports events this year in 15 cities across China.

Chinese E-Commerce Tax Rules Change

On April 8th, China has changed their tax rules on online retail goods to “level the playing field for e-commerce platforms and traditional retailers and importers,” according to Xinhua. Online purchases from overseas will now be charged in the same way that other imported goods are charged, which carry tariffs, import VAT and consumption tax. We have no word yet on if this will be applicable to goods in the video game industry and digital downloads but the tariffs for all goods are currently set to zero. Import VAT and consumption taxes will vary based on goods. The new policy also only allows a maximum of 2,000 yuan per single cross-border transaction and a max of 20,000 yuan per person per year.

Beijing Kunlun Tech’s Q1 Results

Beijing Kunlun Tech reported higher net profit in Q1, and that is not even including what should come as a result of licensing Supercell’s Clash Royale for mainland China. The game launched March 31st, and as a result earnings and profit may rise even higher for Q2.

First 4K Playstation Center in Vietnam

Cyber café chains tend to keep the market competitive with high-end rigs, and superior service. In Vietnam, Game Zone opened its first 4K-equipped PS4 location in Ha Noi, catering to the PS4 segment with Sony Bravia 4K TV, Sony Sound Bar, Xtra-bass headphones. Customer service is catered to the gamers’ creature comforts such as well-designed and well-lit interior and stocked food inventory. The chain opened with a PS4 tournament.

Singapore Boosts Public Wi-Fi

According to Singapore’s Minster of State of Communications and Information (MCI), Singapore’s public Wi-Fi service (Wireless@SG) will be boosted this year. Currently the speed of Wireless@SG is 2 megabits per second (Mbps) and will go up to 5 Mbps, which will make it faster than 3G speeds. The plan is for the hotspots in Singapore to double from 10,000 to 20,000 by 2018.

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