China’s Game Investment and Financing

Shanghai---The report on China Game Investment and Financing was released at China Game Investment and Development Forum, which was jointly organized by ChinaVenture, a market search company, and the organization Committee of ChinaJoy in Shanghai on July 14. The report shows that China Game has attracted venture capital of US$300 million totally which is invested in nearly 50 projects since 2000. It also estimates that another upsurge of venture capital and the second tide of overseas IPO are coming from 2007 to 2009, with the game industrial chain becoming perfect little by little.

According to this report, the online game players will amount to 60 million this year (32.6 million in 2006, according to the Publishers Association of China), being nearly 40% of total netiens in China. The market scale of online game is estimated to exceed RMB10 billion (US$1.32 billion) this year, which will also exceed the whole market scale of South Korean, a strong country in the game industry. The statistics shows the role-playing game (RPG) income increases to RMB5.65 billion (US$747 million) in 2006 from RMB1.76 billion (US$233 million) in 2003. This report estimates that RPG income will reach RMB9.4 billion (US$1.24 billion) in 2011. The statistic data also shows the leisure game income increases to RMB1.77 billion (US$234 million) in 2006 from RMB240 million (US$31.74 million) in 2003, which is estimated to catch up with that of RPG in 2011. The report points out that RPG has entered the mature and stable period, while the leisure game still has an fast increasing trend.

The report also points out that the mobile game will have a breakthrough, with mobile phone subscribers totaling 400 million and the 3G times coming this year, though the mobile game market is small at present. It estimates that mobile online game income will reach RMB5100 in the 4th quarter this year.

Finally, the report concludes the inexorable trend of online game is free to players, while inserted advertisements will be the important sources of income. The mobile online game will be the new increasing point of the game industry. Simultaneously, venture capitals will continue paying high attention to the game industry, and the withdrawal channels of venture capital will be richer fatherly, featuring company’s being listed, strategic investment and purchase.