Political analyst Winston Ma explains the upcoming regulatory plans for China’s government in 2022 including the metaverse, he tells at CNBC. The metaverse includes gaming, crypto, NFT’s, and other issues on the internet.
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| Arnold Ma |
McKinsey&Company reports that the luxury market is driven by the post-1980s generation with an average annual spend of $5,900 (RMB 41,000) and consumers born after the 1990s, who spend, on average, $3,600 (RMB 25,000) a year. A separate report by the Boston Consulting Group suggests that 78 percent of China’s luxury consumers are under 35.
In keeping with global trends, women account for a majority — 71 percent — of China’s luxury spending. But they also form 58 percent of the country’s 484 million-strong gaming population. In addition, two-thirds are between 19 and 35 and are generally middle and upper-middle class.
“Chinese luxury buyer demographics overlap with hobbies normally associated with a younger audience, such as gaming,” says Arnold Ma, CEO of digital creative agency Qumin. “A combined social content and gaming strategy for brand campaigns will not only have the most reach, but more importantly provide a far more authentic message to Chinese luxury buyers.”
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Tencent’s roller-coaster year also took place as China’s technology giants came of age. Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent – the trio of internet companies that has come to represent Chinese Big Tech – are all around 20 years old and have expanded their presence beyond China's shores.
“We’re coming to the tail end of a decade of gangbuster high growth due to the mobile revolution,” said Matthew Brennan, managing director of consultancy China Channel. “The incremental increases in number of users and time spent online per person is getting less and less. All the low-hanging fruit is long gone.”
He said the business-to-business market “is an area many technology companies, both in the US and China, feel holds more opportunities for growth”.
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Tencent’s 2016 annual report stated that the game had amassed 200 million registered mobile users, including more than 50 million daily active users (DAUs).
And according to data from mobile data provider QuestMobile, Honor of Kings led all mobile gaming apps in China with more than 180 million monthly active users (MAUs) in May of this year. HappyElements-owned Anipop was in second place, with 54.4 million fewer MAUs by QuestMobile’s count.
That same month, Honor of Kings became the world’s top-grossing game as measured by revenues generated from Apple’s App Store and Google Play combined, according to data from app market research firm App Annie. And according to gaming industry database CNG, the game generated RMB5.5 billion (roughly $828 million) in revenues in Q1 2017 alone.
Honor of Kings’ popularity has made it close to ubiquitous in China. “Now, wherever you see people using their phones around China, you can see that the game has a huge impact in society,” said Matthew Brennan, co-founder of China Channel. “People are making friends through the game and playing it together as a social activity,” he added.More at eMarketer.
Marc van der Chijs1. Gaming is a waste of time and is bad for kidsRead more: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-misconceptions-about-online-casual-and-social-gaming-2011-5#ixzz1LvaTI5M9
This is something I hear often but that I totally disagree with. I believe there is a creative and educational layer in many games. But of course it doesn't mean that kids should play all the time. I have two kids myself and find that online games can be an addition to their development. It's important that children also play outside and do sports. Next to that they can also play online games, but they should only play for short lengths of time. Research shows that kids of 3 years old should play maximum 10 minutes per day and 6 year olds should not be online more than 30 minutes per day. If children do that games can be very beneficial. They can learn a lot in games, for example learning to work together, but also getting more self confidence when you achieve something in a game.
Marc van der ChijsTimes have changed though, nowadays online games are everywhere. Especially social games like Farmville managed to get a lot of new people to start playing games. In the early days social networks helped the growth as well: if your friends invite you to play a game the chance that you will try out the game is a lot higher...Companies like Zynga (7bn USD) and Playdom (750ml USD) are exceptions, but others see their value also go up:
But for non-social game companies valuations so far where a bit lower. It seems that may be changing though and that investors are starting to realize the potential of these companies. This week it was announced that Bigpoint raised a USD 350 million round at a USD 600 million valuation. The company is not a social game company but focuses on browser based MMO (=massive multiplayer online) games, that are free to play. Bigpoint earns its money with virtual items as well, just like Zynga and Playdom. The big difference is that Bigpoint owns most of its users and is not dependent on a site like Facebook.Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.
I expect that valuations for many other online game properties will go up in the near future, especially for those companies that get a large part of their revenues from virtual goods and that are not dependent on Facebook for their traffic. It will be interesting to see at which valuation these companies are able to raise rounds – or are snapped up by players like Zynga looking to have their own traffic! Based on what I am hearing in the market the revenues of many of these players are doubling every year because of virtual items (just like Bigpoint) and I won’t be surprised to see a billion dollar IPO for one of them within the next 18 months.
