Chinese Government Quantifies Online Gaming Surge

According to a report issued by China's General Administration of Press and Publications, released at the annual online game industry meeting in Xiamen on the 11th, the Chinese online (MMO and casual) game market continues to expand. The total number of online game subscribers in the country totaled 26.3 million, while income came to 3.77 billion yuan ($470 million USD); the figures are a 30 percent increase over 2004's subscribers and a 52.6 percent increase over the 2004 total income. The market also contributed significant income to related industries, according to the report: online games provided a boost of 17.3 billion yuan ($2.14 billion USD) to telecommunications, 7.1 billion yuan ($887.5 million USD) to the IT industry, and 30 million yuan ($3.7 million USD) to the publishing industry. The GAPP report also theorizes that the future of the online games industry may lie in online casual games and mobile games, both of which saw increases in 2005. Casual games accounted for 30% of the 2005 total online game revenue, and the number of online mobile games increased to 18, a number expected to expand more rapidly once 3G service is introduced to the country. Online game revenue is expected to reach 17.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion USD) by the year 2010.