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Telecom Insider Excerpt
China has a huge potential market for almost anything, and mobile gaming is no exception. Besides its busy mobile telecom sector, China also has a booming videogaming industry, driven mainly by cybercafes and the popularity of multiplayer online games. The growth in both mobile phones and gaming opens up a huge opportunity for mobile gaming, especially in connected casual and multiplayer gaming. This opportunity, however, will be limited mainly to urban and higher-income people. Lower-income and rural consumers generally own handsets with lesser specifications and gaming capabilities. We estimate there are 12.3m mobile game players in China at year-end 2009, still fewer than in Japan or the US.
Forged in an environment of pervasive piracy, the resourcefulness of the gaming industry in China, with in-game micro-payments and online multiplayer games, bodes well for the mobile gaming opportunity. Pyramid Research believes, however, that to meet demand and live up to its potential, mobile gaming in China needs more affordable data access, wider 3G coverage and better handset gaming capabilities.
This Insider examines the state of mobile gaming in China, paying particular attention to the role of mobile data networks, the lessons of the overall gaming industry in the country and the need for more gaming-friendly handsets. It analyzes different types of games and identifies the challenges facing mobile gaming today as well as the factors that will determine the success of mobile gaming initiatives in the market. The report contains two case studies: one on the free-to-play model and one on Chinese Internet giant Tencent’s mobile gaming activities.
Published monthly for each of the world’s most dynamic regions, Telecom Insiders are packed with trend analysis, industry best practices, market sizing and forecasting, competitor analysis, and case studies, providing you information you can leverage to make better business decisions. For more information about Telecom Insiders, please contact Amalia Vega via email at avega@pyr.com or telephone at +1.809.330.4520
Author: Luis Portela, Jan ten Sythoff
Publication Date: December 2009
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