中国手机游戏蓬勃发展

Gaming on the go is really catching on. China is tapping into that hunger, with developers busy designing and producing the latest games to download and enjoy.

According to a report by research firm Niko Partners, at the end of 2012, the number of mobile gamers outnumbered that of PC gamers in China - reaching 192 million users.

Market revenue stood at around 600 million US dollars in 2011. The Niko Partners report predicts that will run into billions of dollars over the next few years.

And experts do not see a point of saturation any time soon, as the smartphone has only grabbed 50 per cent of the mobile phone market share so far.

Yodo1 is a games company based in Beijing that works with Western developers to bring their titles to the Chinese market.

The company's chief executive officer, Henry Fong, says staff are working at full throttle.

"I think there's been so much coverage and the growth of the market both in terms of unit shipments as well as the revenue growth has been so significant that mobile games developers really can't ignore the Chinese market."

Companies like Yodo1 are crucial for Western developers in China.

The complexities of the market mean local advice is needed, to comply with the intricate mechanisms of distribution and sales of mobile games.

In Western markets developers only have to deal with Apple's app store for iOS, and Google Play and Amazon for Android.

But in China there are over 500 different app stores, over a dozen different payment methods and hundreds of different promotional channels in the market.
The main reason for this is the rapid growth of mobile handsets.

From fewer than 100 (m) million in 2011 to 430 (m) million at the end of 2012, mobile handset sales are expected to reach 500 (m) million units at the end of 2013, double the number of the Unites States.

This boom has been caused by the fall of handset prices, which have gone from a minimum of 326 US dollars to 163 US dollars.

Leading companies like Gameloft, headquartered in Paris, are rapidly expanding their operations on Chinese soil and increasing revenues.

Gameloft arrived in Beijing in 2003, and after some turbulence during the first few years, it is now settled in and is chasing opportunities.
　
It already has three studios in China and has recently signed an agreement with Tencent - one of China's biggest web companies - to distribute a version of the game "Ice Age Village 3" on the Tencent Mobile QQ Game Platform, with 350 (m) million users and counting.

Eric Tan is the company's manager in China.　

"Compared to the other entertainment industries, the mobile gaming industry is growing at exponential rate. Right now, both online gaming, mobile gaming, we have seen cases where the revenues is greater than other media such as movies, TVs and music," he says.

China is not only breeding users, but game engineers as well, who are catching up with the level of Western artists and producing global hits. The Chinese mobile game market is a gold mine that has yet to mature.

As the market consolidates, it will get easier for game studios to be able to integrate into local app-stores and payment methods, while mobile gamers are expected to get used to paying for content.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.