A golden age for gaming on the go

Updated: 2013-05-06 01:55

By Gao Yuan (China Daily)

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In addition, with more Chinese people now using advanced mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, developers will have a strong market to cater to. Research from Analysys International estimated the smartphone penetration rate could reach 55 percent by the end of 2013.

The other important chain in the sector is the app store because they are more linked to the developers, players and advertisers, analysts said.

Tencent Holdings Ltd, a top Internet firm in China, also runs the country's biggest Android-based gaming store.

Tencent took more than 18 percent of the revenue by operating games running on Android phones. The Shenzhen-based company was remotely followed by China Mobile, which took about 8.6 percent of the revenue. Game.189.cn, an online game store run by China Telecom Corp, was ranked third, taking a little more than 8 percent of the revenue, said Analysys International.

Smaller app stores will find it difficult to generate profit because China's top 10 app stores account for more than 80 percent of the revenue, according to Yu from App Annie. Yu, however, did not disclose the annual revenue for China's app stores.

More than 90 percent of the revenue generated by professional gaming distribution platforms came from selling apps to China's smartphone users, said Analysys International.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the online gaming market is expected to surpass 100 billion yuan in 2015. In 2012, the market was more than 60 billion yuan, up 28.3 percent year-on-year.

 

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