Niko News Roundup: Tencent’s 200 Million Concurrent QQ Users

Shanda’s New Game: Bloodline

Shanda’s new self-developed game Bloodline will be launched in the oversea markets in April or May. Right now, Singapore and Taiwan are two target markets that have been released. Due to the Japanese manga type of artstyle and RPG core gameplay, Japan will be another target market.

Tencent’s Concurrent QQ Users

200 million people – equal to nearly 1/3 of the total US population – concurrently use Tencent’s QQ messenger and social network in China. 200 million people using the same app at the same time. This is 100 million more, double, the number of concurrent QQ users 4 years earlier as of March 2010.

Chinese Consumption

According to People Daily, China is expected to see a boost in household consumption that will rise from the current 35% of GDP to 45-50% by 2020. We’re seeing consumers in the second- and third-tier cities fueling growth.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

Blizzard’s Diablo III: Reaper of Souls was launched at the end of March. The game has not yet been officially introduced into China, so many Chinese players played the game through Taiwan server by purchasing “points” on Taiwan’s Battle.net via Zhi Fu Bao (Ali Pay) and exchanging “points” for the game. But this method will no longer work. 12318.gov.cn (National Cultural Market Report website) received a report saying that Zhi Fu Bao was providing service for the game. The Department Cultural Market under the Ministry of Culture investigated Zhi Fu Bao, and now Zhi Fu Bao has withdrawn the payment service at Taiwan Battle.net.

Rumor: Chukong to File for IPO

Another industry source has stated that Chinese game developers Locojoy Technology and Linekong are soon planning listings in Hong Kong. Locojoy and Linekong are the developers of mobile card RPG I’m MT Online and side-scrolling action mobile online game Legend of King, respectively.

Zhan Xian’s Daily Revenue Over RMB 1 Million

Zhan Xian, a mobile game on Android that is exclusively published by Tencent, has daily revenue of more than RMB 1 million in April. Zhan Xian used to be a webgame, developed by Hoolai Game. It broke the record of having monthly revenue of RMB 50 million.