The year-long survey, Netguide 2008, conducted by the Data Center of the China Internet (DCCI) and the Internet Society of China (ISC), polled more than 300 websites, 270 enterprises and 50,786 persons.Results suggest that the number of Chinese online gamers will likely surpass 59 million in 2008, a 20 percent increase on 2007’s 48 million, reports China View.
The survey also found that the market value of Chinese online gaming in 2007 rocketed 57 percent from 2006’s 9.36 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars).
Shanda and Netease, both Nasdaq-listed companies, continued to lead the online gaming market during 2007 in terms of revenue and numbers of subscribers, while third-placed Giant Interactive increased its hold on the market to 14 percent.
Fu Zhihua, director of the DCCI research department, noted that 2008 will likely see many online gaming companies following the example of Kingsoft and Perfect World by going public, while free-to-play online gaming services are expected to dominate the market with an 80 percent share.