Top 10 Most Popular Online Gaming Companies in China

Top 10 Most Popular Online Gaming Companies in China
Jul 23, 2011 By Andrea Scarlatelli , eChinacities.com

There is no denying that Internet usage in China is a booming business. With over 500 million people connected, China is by far the most active online nation in the world. Of that number, roughly two-thirds of these users play online games, which is about what you’d expect. According to the China Internet Network Information Center, most players are male, under the age of thirty, and live in larger cities.

While the business of developing online games used to rest primarily with the United States, England, and Japan, Chinese software is becoming more and more popular, currently holding 56% of the Asian Pacific market. This, quite simply, translates into an astronomical amount of revenue being pumped in to the country's economy. People's Daily reports that China's online gaming market topped 3 billion USD just last year, or roughly one-third of the global gaming earnings. This number is only expected to grow as more and more users flock to Internet gaming.

It is important to distinguish between the two different types of online games available. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (or MMORPG's) are role-playing games in which thousands of players interact with each other within the gaming “world.” Examples include such popular games as World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy. Multiplayer Online Casual Games (MOCG), on the other hand, simply refer to those competitive games played online that do not require another “world,” such as online poker or Ma Jiang. Regardless of the gaming category you refer to, there are countless Internet companies trying to get in on the action. Here is a list of the top ten most popular gaming companies in China.

1) Tencent Games
If the name Tencent sounds familiar to you, it's probably because they own pretty much everything in China – including the QQ application that Chinese netizens can't seem to go a day without. They are also responsible for some of the most popular online games around, including: Dungeon & Fighter, a fighting game; QQ Dancer, a dancing game which lets you interact via (surprise!) QQ; Xunxian, a 3D role playing game and Cross Fire, a first person shooting game. All these games and more helped push Tencent to the top of the gaming pile, with last year's earnings pushing 1.4 billion USD.

2) NetEase
NetEase originally made a name for itself with its operation of 163.com, a web portal founded in June of 1997. In April of last year it was the twenty-eighth most visited site in the world, according to Alexa' Internet Rankings, and by August of that year it had risen to number twenty-seven, drawing more user traffic than many top companies such as Apple, CNN, and AOL. This was the same year it topped over 749 million USD in revenue, possibly because of its acquisition of the wildly popular World of Warcraft. Netease's online gaming industry largely revolves around Westward Journey, a game in which users must travel on the Silk Road, and Fantasy Westward Journey, which currently ranks as the most popular MMORPG in China.

3) Shanda Interactive Games
Founded in December of 2001, Shanghai-based Shanda Interactive Games released its first MMORPG game, The Legend of Mir II, in 2001. The company did something radically different when it decided to make this game free to join and instead charge users solely on the time spent playing. When Shanda announced in 2005 that their role-playing games The World of Legend and Magical Landwould also be free of charge, many other gaming companies were forced to do the same in order to remain competitive. While their MMORPG games such as Dungeons & Dragons Online remain popular, Shanda Interactive Games also host more non-competitive games like chess. This has proved thus far to be a winning formula, as the company pulled in 680 million USD in 2010.

4) Perfect World
Parent company to the United States' Runic Games, Beijing Perfect World Company, has been plotting moves to expand to the Western market, made clear earlier this year with their purchase of Atari's Cryptic Studios for 50 million USD. Founded in 2004, games like the 3D fantasy adventure Perfect World and the 2D Battle of the Immortals, in which players must go on an epic quest, have helped push the company's earnings up to 374 million USD last year. Currently, they are in the works to develop an action role playing game called Torchlight for which they gained exclusive rights.

5) KongZhong
KongZhong Corporation is China's leading mobile internet company, entertaining people on the go for hours at a time with addicting games like Zombie Crisis and Ninja Chicken 2. Their best known and most well-loved game, however, would have to be Kungfu Hero, a 3D martial arts game that can get surprisingly realistic. This helped the company muscle their way to 149.6 million USD in revenue last year.

6) Changyou
The Changyou website actually developed out of Sohu.com's popular online gaming industry in April of 2009. They are known for creating games like Legend of the Ancient World (a “swashbuckling adventure game”) and Immortal Faith that are based on traditional Chinese fighting techniques and ancient folklore. Their 2010 revenue of 327 million USD was largely led by their most well known (and most played) game, Novel of the Eight Demigods. The announcement earlier this year that the company had acquired a majority stake in Shenzhen 7Road Technology Company has experts believing Changyou's hold on the online gaming market will only strengthen.

7) Giant Interactive
The maker of such popular games as King of Kings and ZT Online suffered a setback recently when their “treasure box” feature, a place where you could (using real money) buy rare items for use in various games, was deemed “gambling” by the government authorities and promptly removed. Despite this little hiccup, they still earned 201.9 million USD last year and have over 1,280,000 people at a time still log on to their various MMORPG games.

8) The9
The9 is another company to implement the system of charging users for the time spent playing a game instead of the game itself. Their name refers to the eight traditional arts (including sculpture, architecture, painting, etc.) - with online gaming being the “ninth.” It is probably best known for bringing the phenomenon known as World of Warcraft (WoW) to China, although its partner, Blizzard Entertainment, announced in April of 2009 that the ownership rights had officially been given to NetEase. The Guild and Soul of the Ultimate Nation are also popular The9 games. A smaller company than the rest on this list, their revenue in 2010 was a relatively small at 15.9 million USD.

9) Net Dragon
Taking a slightly different approach than most other Chinese-based online gaming developers, Net Dragon tends to license popular games already developed in the West and bring them to the masses in China. Games such as Dungeon Keeper, Heroes of Might & Magic, and Ultima Online have all found a home in Asia thanks to this company. They also translate these games into various languages (including English, Spanish, and French) in order to appeal to a wider audience. In 2010 they were able to gross 19.7 million USD.

10) Shenzhen ZQ Games
Established in 2003, Shenzhen ZQ Games managed to remain just below the radar (they are not considered one of the top five game operators according to their amount of generated revenue) while still making popular games like Tian Chao. However, that all changed in 2010, when the company really made a name for itself by becoming the first domestically traded MMORPG game company to be listed publicly on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 110 million USD and a 2010 revenue of 11 million USD.
 

Related Links
China's Most Popular Websites (and What Happens on Them)
The Viper That Bit Me – Gaming in China
How To: Set Up an Online Bank Account in China

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