Creative juices flow with the Thames in London

By Zhang Chunyan (China Daily) Updated: 2014-05-19 09:17

Dalian Wanda bought a 92-percent share of Sunseeker Yachts for 320 million pounds. Photos provided to China Daily

Companies in the creative industries are leading the charge as Chinese investment floods into London.

Over the past four financial years, 105 Chinese companies have invested in the city, and 20 percent of those are in the creative industry, says London & Partners, the city's official promotional organization.

China's leading mobile gaming company, Rekoo, opened a London office last year with a view to market its games to Europeans and bring games from European game developers to China.

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Rekoo, which is well-known for games such as Finding Something and Sunshine Winery, already had a presence in international markets including the United States and Japan and aims to invest heavily to increase its market share in Europe.

Rekoo's UK office is in Tech City, an area in central and east London where many technology companies have gathered, including Cisco, Facebook, Google and Intel.

Since Tech City was opened in 2010, the number of digital companies in east London has grown from 200 to more than 1,600, says Jeff Cao, head of Asia Pacific at London & Partners.

Pan Jinyu, vice-president of Rekoo, says the company chose to settle in Tech City because the area has a liberal atmosphere, which facilitates easy communication between different companies. Often new ideas can spring from these conversations.

London & Partners estimates that the 105 Chinese companies that set up shop in the city in the past four years will have created 3,052 jobs.

In the 2013-14 financial year, the organization helped 24 companies from China set up shop in London; it helped 22 the year before.

Gordon Innes, CEO of London & Partners, says: "London has seen a wave of investment from China in the last year, and the city is clearly an attractive and welcoming destination for Chinese companies as they seek to expand worldwide."