On Monday evening SIG analyst Zhao Chunming downgraded Tencent from positive to neutral over concerns about its valuation in the face of a slowdown in the Chinese online game market. 48% of Tencent’s revenue comes from online gaming, and in the last several weeks Perfect World, Shanda Games, Giant Interactive and Netease have all issued [...]
On Thursday Fred Wilson posted a chart from Comscore listing the top 30 global Internet properties. There are six Chinese sites on the list-Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Sina, Sohu and Netease. The Comscore data significantly understates the size of major Chinese websites. I have borrowed the chart and inserted it below. Google’s Doubleclick Ad Planner has [...]
Ku6, acquired by Shanda (Nasdaq:SNDA) controlled Hurray Holdings (Nasdaq:HRAY) in November 2009, is now poised to become the first US-listed pure play Chinese online video site. I have written extensively about China’s online video business. To date more than $500M has been invested into various Chinese firms, with the field effectively winnowed down to four standalone [...]
There is a report in the Chinese press that Netease is in talks to buy into Microsoft’s MSN China joint venture by purchasing the 50% share owned by the current Chinese partner. MSN China is a joint venture that was established in 2005 between Microsoft and Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd. (SAIL). This report is unconfirmed and [...]
The Machinima film ”网瘾战争 War of Internet Addiction” won top prize at the 2010 Tudou Festival, as Tudou co-founder Marc van der Chijs describes on his blog. Congratulations to 性感玉米 SexyCorn ( @CorndogCN on twitter) and his team for making such a good and important film. You can see it on Tudou below, or watch an English subtitled version [...]
Niko Partners, run by a good friend, has released its latest survey of the China Game Market. Per the release: Niko Partners, the leading market intelligence firm on China’s video game industry, today announced preliminary results from its upcoming Annual Review & Five-Year Forecast on China’s video game industry, citing $3.57 billion in revenue from [...]
Google’s recent moves in China have captured global attention about censorship and Internet controls in China, eliciting protests from inside and outside China. But there is a much more entertaining protest about China’s web controls circulating on the Internet–”网瘾战争 War of Internet Addiction”. It is an hour long video, “shot” almost entirely with in-game video [...]
In a post last week on Netease ($NTES) I quoted Chinese press reports saying that on January 17 Chinese government regulators would announce penalties for Netease and its “unapproved” launch of World of Warcraft. That did not happen. The GAPP’s annual online game conference just concluded, and not only was there no news of a [...]
Shanda Games ($GAME) purchased Mochi Media, a flash game distribution and advertising platform, for a reported $80m. It is Shanda’s first move into the US market. Several of the other leading Chinese game firms are already operating in the US or have announced plans to enter the market. Perfect World ($PWRD) operates English versions of some [...]
If the latest reports in the Chinese press are accurate, China’s General Administration for Press and Publications (GAPP) has told Netease ($NTES) that it has until January 17th to stop charging for World of Warcraft, otherwise it will impose a massive fine and shut off its Internet access. This has not been confirmed, nor have [...]
Items of Interest