This insights article is written by Niko Partners in conjunction with gamescom asia. Did you know that it is Southeast Asia that is taking the lead in terms of growth in the video games market and esports industry? The region generates $6 billion in market revenue and hosts nearly 300 million gamers in 2023. That [...]
VNG Plans US IPO VNG Corp has signed a preliminary agreement with Nasdaq Inc to explore an IPO. VNG, founded in 2004, has long been a strong operator in Vietnam. Vietnam, along with Indonesia and Thailand, are three of the countries we recommend watching for the highest revenue and growth potential as of our 2016 Southeast [...]
Pokemon Go in Southeast Asia While Pokemon Go's popularity has subsided in parts of the western world, the game is still a hit in Southeast Asia and brands are continuing to embrace the augmented reality game. Companies throughout Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore and beyond have signed licensing agreements with Nintendo. China's Newest Online Gaming Regulations - [...]
Battle of Social Networks in China According to an article on InsideGamesAsia, there are many social networks in Asia whose popularity changes by country. Wechat from Tencent essentially owns China's social network market. In Japan and Taiwan, Line is known to be the primary social app, while Kakaotalk has been stubbornly clenching onto its throne in [...]
Pokemon Go Unavailable in China Niko Partners' analyst Daniel Ahmad was quoted this week by Business Insider on how Pokemon Go has still not entered China. "'Pokémon Go' relies on Google Services for the game to run correctly," Daniel told Business Insider in an email exchange. "The game itself uses Google Maps as the game world [...]
Wandoujia Acquired by Alibaba Alibaba will acquire Wandoujia at $200 million. After the acquisition Wandoujia will be incorporated into Alibaba's mobile business unit. Softbank used to be the largest shareholder of Wandoujia. In 2014, Wandoujia landed $120 million in Series B financing from Softbank, DCM and Innovation Works Development Fund. It was also then invested in [...]
E3 2016 Niko staff combed the halls of E3 2016 to see how Chinese firms would participate and what they would choose to reveal in this setting. Seventeen Chinese companies attended E3 this year, compared to 16 in 2015 and five in 2014. The list includes NetEase, Perfect World, Gamedo Co., Locojoy, MobileFish Co., Tencent (who [...]
Piano Tiles 2 One of the World's Leading Games (Thanks to Hong Kong) According to Inside Games Asia, Piano Tiles 2 is now one of the world's most popular mobile games. The game was developed by Clean Master Games, based in Guangzhou, and the sequel was promoted by Cheetah Mobile Inc. after Clean Master Games was [...]
NetEase's New VR Title NetEase announced the title of its new mobile game - Ming Yun Qi Yuan (Origin of Destiny), which is going to be shown this week at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. This is the first future-themed MMORPG from NetEase and it supports VR, something we are seeing a lot [...]
Tencent Owns Riot Games Tencent has purchased the shares in Riot Games that it previously did not own, bringing the ownership up to 100%. The Chinese gaming, messaging and Internet behemoth already has the license to operate Riot's hit League of Legends in China and has generated a good portion of its gaming revenue from that [...]
