Web Game Developer Forgame Landed On Hong Kong Market, Recording Valuation of Over $1 Billion

Forgame Holdings, a low-profile Chinese web game developer, debuted on Hong Kong stock market on October 3 after launching roadshow in mid-September. Shares of Forgame soared more than 32% on the listing day, recording a market valuation of over $1 billion (report in Chinese).

The company generated 240 million yuan of net profit and 777 million yuan of revenue in 2012, boasting more than 179 million registered users as of June this year, according to prospectus released by the company.

Wang Dongfeng, founder and helmsman of Forgame, has previously predicted that games that requires low hardware configuration and easy hand-on experience, will become a development direction in the future, such as web game (eg. games on 4399 and 7K7K), social gaming (Happy Farm) and mobile gaming (Happy Fisher), because these games lowered the gaming threshold for players (source in Chinese).

Forgame is principally engaged in research and distribution of web games, which are free-to-play and do not require any client software to be installed apart from a web browser or browser plug-in. Due to the accessibility of web games, they are often played in more frequent, shorter sessions compared to traditional terminal games.

Different from client games (eg. role-playing games) which need long R&D period, huge investments and hefty ad fees, web games can be upgraded more frequently according to gamer feedbacks, shortening the development cycle. Client games are products, while web games are services, according to Wang.

As a serial entrepreneur, Wang’s early endeavors include digital content distributing platform Zcom and Meitu.