Chinas online games market worth $1.5bn in 2008

Sales from China’s online games market reached 10.57 billion Chinese Yen [CNY] ($1.5bn) in FY 2007-2008, up 61.5 per cent year on year.

According to a new Research and Markets report, 6.88 billion CNY ($986.6m) came from sales revenue from online games developed independently by Chinese companies, amounting to 65 per cent of the national total.

The previous year, the country recorded 4.24 billion CNY ($608m) recorded in the previous year. This the third year in a row that sales revenue of China’s independently developed online games dominated the local market.

However, R&M found that the market shares of China’s top three online games developers, Shanda, Netease and Giant, declined in the year, as more and more local companies with independently developed online game products have taken part in the market competition.

More online game companies grabbed the market shares from the top three giants by use of the success of only one or two online game products, resulting in a further decline in industry concentration.

As of December, 2007, the number of China’s online games users has reached 40.17 million, up 23 per cent year-on-year.