Xiaomi’s Unmet Goals
Gamelook reported that at Xiaomi’s internal annual company party, CEO Jun Lei announced that Xiaomi has established an “exploring lab” to do research on cutting-edge technology such as virtual reality and robots/artificial intelligence. President Bin Lin announced that shipments of Xiaomi’s phones reached 70 million units this year, although in early 2015 Xiaomi revised its shipment goal from 100 million units to 80 million units, Xiaomi still didn’t reach the goal it set. Jun Lei said it was because that the entire market slowed down in 2015. “80 million units was sales projection that we made in early 2015. However, we gradually started to treat that projection as our goal and spent a lot of work and energy to accomplish it. We had a lot of pressure. You could no longer see smiles on our faces.” Jun Lei pointed out the goal for 2016 – “as long as we are happy.”
Collaboration Between Game Developers & Film Producers in China
As we touched on earlier this month, the Chinese box office is growing at a rapid pace. According to Business Insider, people under 30 years of age compromise over 50% of Chinese film audiences. Over the last five years, young adults in China have fueled box-office sales growth. This coincidences very strongly with young adults in China also fueling mobile gaming’s growth – in our last mobile gaming report, the largest majority of mobile gamers in China are adults in the 25-30 year old range (over 38% being in this age range).
This is highlighted by a recent post on InsideGamesAsia.biz, featuring the increasing coordination between mobile game firms and film producers to develop joint games. Youzu, for example, will be releasing a game based on the popular novel The Secret of the Grave Robber right around the same time they release their film, also based on the novel. We anticipate this becoming more common as lines continue to blur in entertainment globally and entertainment entities figure out ways to get their properties on multiple screens.
China’s Economy is Slowing Down
Gamelook said Q4 2015 was a “winter” as Chinese economy was slowing down. Gamelook reported the average incomes of 32 cities in China, calculated in the 4th quarter of 2015. The average income (monthly) of the 32 cities is RMB 6070 Yuan ($923 USD).
The top 5 cities with highest average income are Beijing (9227 Yuan, $1402 USD), Shanghai (8664 Yuan, $1317 USD), Shenzhen (7728 Yuan, $1175 USD), Hangzhou (7097, $1079 USD) and Guangzhou (6913 Yuan, $1051 USD). Gamelook also reported the top industries with the highest income in the nation. Online gaming industry is ranked at #4 with average income of RMB 8235 Yuan ($1252 USD). The #1 industry is professional service (consulting/accounting/law/HR, etc.)
According to the BBC, China’s economy grew by 6.9% in 2015, compared with 7.3% a year earlier, marking its slowest growth in a quarter of a century.
Singapore’s Regulations Restructuring
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Media Development Authority (MDA) will be restructured into two new entities: The Infocommunications Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Government Technology Organisation (GTO), announced Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim.
Thailand’s Plans for Broadband Internet
In Thailand, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission and the Information and Communications Technology Ministry have promised to collaborate and provide broadband internet to all 70,000 villages across their nation. Right now, coverage exists in about 27,000 villages. The ministry will focus on installing fixed and wireless broadband access in the remaining 40,000+ villages and install a new “international Internet gateway.”
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