ChinaJoy 2017

Niko Partners will be attending ChinaJoy 2017 next week and giving two presentations – one on the global state of video games and one on esports in China. If you would like to schedule a meeting with us, please contact Lisa via email or WeChat (id: lisacosmashanson)

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China Censors Whatsapp Users

Users in China have noted this week that they aren’t able to send photos and videos to one another any more and in some cases, some users aren’t able to send text messages either. The New York Times has also reported that Facebook’s other messaging app might be completely blocked soon in China.

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The Inaugural Overwatch Team Owners

Five of the seven inaugural teams will be based in the US, with two more located in Asia (one in Seoul and one in Shanghai). The Shanghai team will be owned by NetEase and the Seoul team will be operated by Kabam founder Kevin Chou. For the US – the CEO of the New England Patriots will own a team in Boston, the COO of the New York Mets will own a team in New York City, the Immortals CEO will own a team in Los Angeles, the NRG Esports founder will own a team in San Francisco and the Misfits Gaming CEO will own a team in Miami and Orlando in Florida.

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House Bill 5337 Aims to Speed Up the Internet in the Philippines

The Philippines has one of the slowest Internet connections in the world. This week, House Bill 5337 was introduced to help redefine Internet services as a prime telecommunications function. This will give the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) better regulatory powers to require better/higher standards from the Internet Service Providers in the Philippines. According to NoypiGeeks, “Under the House Bill 5337, ISPs who fail to comply will be charged with a Php100,000 daily fine. The sanction can last for up to 500 days, which can result in a total whopping fine of Php50,000,000.”

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Chinese Folk Hero Nezha to Battle with Transformers

In order to better serve the voracious appetite of Chinese movie-goers, the US’ Hasbro and China Central Television have announced a joint project to bring a Chinese folk hero to the Transformers cartoons. It is being lauded as a milestone in Sino-US cartoon cooperation and it may be just the beginning as more entertainment firms seek to get a better foothold in China’s market.

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