The user base of Chinese gaming industry soared 20.6% year-on-year to 490 million this year, while the total revenue hiked 38% from a year earlier to 8.32 billion yuan ($1.37 billion), according to report released by China Game Industry Annual Conference (via Tech Sina).

With the rise of smartphone and other mobile devices, mobile gaming sector recorded 1.12 billion yuan of revenue this year and experienced an eventful year that can be summarized in three keywords, capital operation, distribution channel, and turnover (via Tech Sina).

Capital operation

Booming mobile game business has become a substantial attraction for investors. Shares related to mobile gaming concept surged and the heat even expanded to stocks remotely related to the concept. The market witnessed active acquisitions for mobile gaming companies and listing of game developers. The acquisition price of most mobile gaming companies range between 10 to 15 times of their annual net profits (source in Chinese).

Several industry practitioners agreed that it is not easy for gaming companies to gain profits from the crowded market. Some others predicted that the heat for this sector will cool down in the next year.

Let’s take a look at acquisition cases in mobile gaming industry:

Distribution channel

In addition to high-quality games, distribution channel is an indispensable part for the success of mobile games. The brand and promotion abilities of distribution channels are becoming crucial factors to attract attentions of users.

In addition to Shanda, online game developer LineKong launched LineKong game distribution center and Locojoy planned to kick off mobile game distribution platform by investing hundreds of millions of yuan.

Turnover

The number of mobile games that recorded tens of millions yuan of monthly turnover climbed from one in 2012 to eleven as of September 2013.

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Monthly Turnover of Mobile Games as of September (via Tech Sina)

Moreover, Internet giant Tencent takes took steps into mobile gaming industry with simple, but highly competitive gameplay by releasing a number of WeChat-based mobile games, including Rhythm Master, Aircraft Fight, Link Link, WeRunner. Foreign games that received plaudits from Chinese gamers are Plants VS Zombies 2, Clash of Clans, etc.

Emma Lee (Li Xin) was TechNode's e-commerce and new retail reporter until June 2022, when she moved to Sixth Tone to cover technology and consumption. Get in touch with her via lixin@sixthtone.com or Twitter.

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