03. August 2010
Our portfolio company BloggerInsight has just released a new report titled: "China's Top 10 Social Games and the Top Social Networks." It is packed with must-read info for developers, publishers, and investors. You can find a free preview here: http://www.chinasocialgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Preview.pdf For our Web2Asia readers we can offer an exclusive, limited-time offer to buy the report at a promotional price of $690 USD. The standard price is $990 USD. Purchase link:...
25. November 2009
Sina broke the news today that - according to an unnamed insider - Chinese entertainment company Shanda (NasdaqGS: SNDA) has just completed the acquisition of local Youtube clone Ku6. Ku6 is generally regarded as number 3 after Tudou and Youku among the Chinese video hosting companies. The price was not disclosed, according to the article. If this is true, it would be fantastic news for the Chinese Internet market. Very little M&A activity has happened here in the past and its rather...
26. October 2009
Asiajin has an interesting post on Chinese game developers infiltrating Japan's largest online social network Mixi. And yes: its farm games :-) Mixi's no 1 ranked app currently is Sunshine Farm by Chinese developer Rekoo. The game reached two million users in less than two months since its launch. On no 3 is already the next China-developed game Everyone’s Farm with 500,000 users by Yicha.
15. October 2009
We have just received several documents relating to last weeks announcements from the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) “prohibiting foreign investment in domestic online gaming operations through joint ventures, wholly owned enterprises and cooperatives.” We had reported earlier this week about the contradicting statements from the Ministry of Culture and the GAPP, as well as the underlying reasons for this continuing power struggle between the two...
13. October 2009
Apparently good news for people that love bad news: just in time for "GDC China" which is taking place in Shanghai these days (not to be confused with "China GDC" ...), the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) issued several notes, which were instantly picked up by Western media, reinforcing once again its announcement from earlier this year that "foreign businesses were banned from investment in China's online game operations through setting up wholly owned...
13. September 2009
During the Geeks on a Plane tour, one of the participants Adrian Bye ran a series of interviews with China CEOs. Adrian runs MeetInnovators, where he frequently publishes his interviews with the absolute best minds and most influential founders and CEOs on the Internet. Here is a re-post of Adrians interview with Tudou co-founder and Spil Games Asia CEO Marc van der Chijs. The full transcript and mp3 files can be downloaded on Adrians CEO interview ressource http://www.MeetInnovators.com.
28. April 2009
The Chinese Ministry of Culture just issued a new regulation on the import of online games. Key points worth noting are: Companies that want to import online games to China have to apply for a license from the Ministry of Culture Preliminary testing (e.g. Beta Versions) is limited to 20.000 active users Without appropriate license, imposing user fees, engaging users in business cooperations or posting advertisement is illegal In case of a significant change in the nature of existing business, a...
20. April 2009
Back in 2008 Baidu launched its online gaming platform wanba.baidu.com. Now, the Chinese search engine giant has announced a strategic partnership with online gaming company Kylin for their long anticipated MMORPG 'Genghis Khan'. Beijing based Kylin started development in 2007 and has so far spent RMB 100 Million (US$ 14,7 Million) in producing the game. The company hopes to benefit from Baidu's large user base and their strong media presence. Baidu on the other hand expects to win a...
16. April 2009
The9, a Shanghai-based online game operator, is about to lose its exclusive license to operate and distribute World of Warcraft (WoW). This was indicated by a internal memo to employees by The9's President Xiaowei Chen, reports newsportal Sina. WoW, which soon became mainland China's largest online game after its launch in June 2005, will in the future be managed by Chinese portal and gaming company NetEase. The announcement led to an immediate 25% drop of The9's share price on NASDAQ. WoW...
07. April 2009
The following is a reprint of our recent guest post on Techcrunch. A big thank you goes out to David Li and Richard Yu, who wrote on this article together with Web2Asia's George Godula. Additionally we would like to thank Season Xu, Keso, Herock and Web2Asia's Michael Hohenwarter who also contributed to this article. Despite China's massively growing internet market, international giants like Google and Facebook are having trouble making gains with the 300 million Chinese online users. China's...