{ Internet in China: online game market hit 1.8 billion US Dollars in 2007 }

China’s online gaming market surged 66.7 percent year-on-year to hit 12.8 billion yuan in 2007, according to a report released by i Research Inc., a Shanghai-based consulting firm. The jump is largely driven by China’s massive player-pool and operators‘ marketing efforts, said the firm.

The number of China’s netizens grew 53 percent last year from 2006 to hit 210 million by December, which means the country is close to overtaking the United States to become the world’s No. 1 by web population size, according to China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC): Nearly 60 percent of the web users (more than 120 million) have played at least one title in the past year, with an average of 7.3 hours spent on the online games every week. Twenty-one percent of them even played more than 10 hours a week.

At the same time, game companies are trying to attract more players by offering free-to-play games that are gaining in popularity.

Shanda ranked the first with a market share of 19.3 percent while the runner-up Netease took 15.1 percent, followed by Giant Interactive Group who took 11.9 percent. The combined share of the three operators last year dropped by five percentage points last year to 58 percent, according to Beijing-based Analysys International.

Overseas game companies are also looking for ways to set up their platforms, though current regulations on the Chinese mainland make it difficult for them to operate a game on their own. Among them, GigaMedia, a Taiwan-based game operator, has gained control of Shanghai-based T2CN, while Electronic Arts Inc is still seeking partners to operate its Pogo China portal after a former local partner broke up with it.

China’s online game market is expected to hit 19.1 billion yuan in 2008 and 40.1 billion yuan in 2011, predicts the firm.

The Internet in China: online game market hit 1.8 billion US Dollars in 2007 by Itamar Medeiros, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.