Fun Box Console

ZTE, China’s 2nd biggest maker of phone-network equipment, formed a JV with Chinese online game operator The9 to make a game console. The venture is called ZTE9 Network Technology and the product is the Fun Box, due to be released this month. It is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 4 chip and will be sold only in China. This is the latest Chinese entrant to the console market after the official lifting of the ban on consoles that had been in place for 13 years.

 

Mobile Development Profit Splits

Tencent announced the varying profit splits dependent on the type of partnership for distribution on its mobile platform. As mentioned in the press, Tencent claims to share 70% of the profit with the developer and keep only 30% for itself. However, there are also channel fees (could be 25-40%), and marketing and promotional fees, and ultimately a game developer may only get 10% of the revenue (rather than 70%). This table compares the splits offered by both Tencent and competitor 360:

 

  Tencent 360
Open mode 7:3 5:5
Joint operations 6:4 5:5
Channel fee 25%-40% 5%
Marketing, promotion fee Charge Free
Monthly revenue < 500,000 Normal profit split 360 doesn’t take any profit
     

Niko Partners in Forbes

Niko Partners has a feature series in Forbes and our latest post is on MMORPGs and why they continue to be big money makers in China.

China’s 2013 Achievements

China Daily reported that on March 5, 2014, Premier Li Keqiang delivered the government work report during the opening meeting of the second session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The report reviewed the achievements made by China in 2013. The following figures show the achievements:

7.7 percent – the gross domestic product (GDP) of China reached 59.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.7 percent over the previous year.
7 percent – the per capita disposable income of urban residents rose by 7 percent in real terms and the per capita net income of rural residents increased by 9.3 percent.
600 million – grain output exceeded 600 million metric tons, increasing for the tenth consecutive year.
348 – 348 administrative fees were either canceled or exempted, thus reducing the tax burden on businesses by more than 150 billion yuan.
21.6 percent – China’s forest coverage increased to 21.6 percent of the total land area.
11,000 kilometers – the total mileage of expressways and railways in service reached 11,000 kilometers, ranking first in the world.
35 percent – the official overseas visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality was reduced by 35 percent.

Mobile Malware Increasing

Chinese buyers beware: mobile malware is on the rise in China as smartphones, mobile games, mobile messaging apps and overall usage of phones is on the rise too