Online Gaming in China - An Escape From Reality
Looking through my last post on a Chinese perspective of Kaixin, Erica’s comment about Xiaonei being too much like real life really jumped out at me. Through my own observations I have found that there is a fairly large number of Chinese who actively seek out a means to separate themselves from the intense pressure of their everyday lives. In some cases people actually choose to live in another world – the world of the Internet café. They walk down dimly lit stairways through narrow hallways filled with clouds of cigarette smoke to the ultimate escape. After they sit down and remove the empty Red Bull cans and chip bags from their desk, they can log in to an alternate reality where they are in control. It is a world where they are the ruler of their own universe, living their ideal life. For some it is a world of warcraft, while many others choose to journey west.
In 2007 China’s online gaming market reached 1.66 billion dollars, growing more than 60% from the previous year. All throughout China thousands of high school students trying to forget about college entrance exams and young adults discontent with their jobs flock to Internet cafes to play online video games. They sit in front of rows of computer screens for upwards of 8 hours playing their favorite games. While I was studying at a well-known Chinese language training center in Beijing, one of my teachers told me that he would literally spend his weekends in an Internet café playing Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft is a major hit around the globe, but Netease’s Westward Journey series has its largest following in China where it is immensely popular. Netease (网易) is a NASDAQ listed company based out of Hangzhou, China with roughly 1600 employees. The company is a diverse Internet-based business that is a pioneer in online gaming, a leading web portal and possesses extensive online advertising capabilities. Online gaming, in particular MMORPGs (multi-player online role-playing games), are a key driver of the company’s success.
Other Chinese companies to observe in the online gaming space are:
Shanda 盛大互动娱ä¹æœ‰é™å…¬å¸ (NASDAQ: SNDA)
Giant Interactive 巨人网络 (NYSE: GA)
Perfect World 完美时空 (NASDAQ: PWRD)
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[...] post by Joel [...]