Panda TV to Launch in China

Chinese Mobile Gamers

Gamelook cited Niko Partners research on Chinese mobile gaming in an article discussing how the domestic mobile games market will soon become the #1 market in the world, surpassing the US market revenue by the end of 2015. Market revenue has risen 6X in the past 4 years, and Niko’s forecast for 2015 is $5.5 billion. The article highlighted key metrics such as there will be 420 million mobile gamers by year end, there are 68,000 mobile game developers, and currently 400,000 mobile games. Chinese gamers, according to Gamelook, spend 34 minutes per day on mobile games, 35.5% of them are female (and rising), and 70% of mobile gamers are from Tiers 3/4/5. Nearly half of mobile gamers are willing to spend money (Niko’s report says that 38% do spend money on mobile games). Tencent has the largest revenue and market share, and Qihoo 360 has the largest distribution channel. Niko’s Chinese Mobile Gaming Report 2015 is 90 slides in PowerPoint, with 57 exhibits. It is a must-read for game developers or publishers hoping to launch or extend the reach of a mobile game in the Chinese market. Please contact us for more information and a sample of the report.

Ubisoft Announces Theme Park in Malaysia

Ubisoft has announced it will build a next-generation theme park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is scheduled to open in 2020 and will be 10,000 square meters, all indoors, featuring rides, shows and other attractions all built around Ubisoft’s games and characters.

Panda TV to Launch in China

Wang Sicong, son of China’s richest man (per an article in GamesIndustry.biz), announced that he will launch Panda TV, a streaming service focused on eSports. This validates Niko’s assumption that demand for eSports is rising rapidly in China. We believe that the popularity of eSports is a major driver for the continued growth of PC online gaming revenue through our 5-year forecast period.

China Cutting Military Back

China’s President Xi Jinping announced that China will cut the number of military troops by 300,000.

Thai Companies Surging in Vietnam

According to a report in VietNamNet Bridge, large retailers in Vietnam are either distributing more Thai goods or raising the proportion of Thai goods in their chain stores, thereby reducing the proportion of goods from China. China is the #1 exporter to Vietnam at this time, with Thailand at #2.

Correction to a Previous Post

In mid-August Niko Partners issued a post entitled ChinaJoy 2015 Recap. It summarized some of our observations at ChinaJoy. The entity that organizes ChinaJoy is called Howell Expo. Recently a representative of Howell Expo contacted Niko to say that two of our observations were misleading and we therefore are issuing this correction.

1. We wrote: “ChinaJoy was held at the China New International Expo Center and was bigger than ever, with a total of 272,900 entries into the show. This does not mean there were 272,900 people, however, because every time a person went through a gate they were counted again and they could enter multiple times per day.” To clarify, the majority of visitors (186,000 or so) were consumers, and these people were only allowed a single entry into the show so they were only counted once. The other “professionals, media, and exhibitors” were allowed in-and-out privileges, but we cannot confirm the number of them that were counted more than once. We apologize for being unclear.

2. We wrote: “It is important to note that all Chinese game companies aspiring to obtain a government permit for a game to be launched in China are required to pay for a booth at ChinaJoy (and the fee is very high compared with other exhibitions).” The representative corrected us by saying that Howell Expo staff and the ChinaJoy organizers do not require game companies to attend or exhibit at a booth at the exhibition, and further the organizers do not act on behalf of the government. We apologize for our mistake.

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: