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China Consumer Behavior

Gaming in China: 55.5 million Chinese play online games

China’s online game market has expanded noticeably. To date the number of online gamers in China has reached 55.5 million, a recent report said. Statistics show that, of the total number of online gamers, those under the age of 22 accounted for 52.5 percent, gamers with education backgrounds of junior college level and below made up 77.1 percent, those with no income accounted for 30 percent. Gamers in the group with an income are mainly concentrated at the income level of 1,001 to 2,000 yuan […]

China’s online game market has expanded noticeably. To date the number of online gamers in China has reached 55.5 million, a recent report said.

The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) recently released the 2008 Research and Analysis Report for Online Game Users in China.

Online gamers have shown a trend of “three lows,” namely low in age, low in education background, and low in income, which has undoubtedly increased the difficulty of supervision and administration of the online gaming market.

Statistics show that, of the total number of online gamers, those under the age of 22 accounted for 52.5 percent, gamers with education backgrounds of junior college level and below made up 77.1 percent, those with no income accounted for 30 percent. Gamers in the group with an income are mainly concentrated at the income level of 1,001 to 2,000 yuan.

The user structure of the online gaming market, which is mainly made up of low-end users, has not only caused a negative effect on the overall development of the market, but has also led to more pressing requirements for supervision of the online gaming market. The users in this group, increasingly low in age and low in education backgrounds, are relatively unable to control their behavior, and in terms of values are easily influenced by their external environments. Moreover, online gaming products, a major feature of which is the creation of virtual worlds, have particularly long term and tremendous impacts on this type of user.

According to the CNNIC report, further improved supervision and administration of the online gaming market can offer effective protection to online gamers, especially minors. This will be favorable to the healthy and sustained development of China’s online gaming industry.

By Itamar Medeiros

Originally from Brazil, Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Germany, where he works as VP of Design Strategy at SAP and lecturer of Project Management for UX at the M.Sc. Usability Engineering at the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences .

Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar has helped truly global companies in multiple continents create great user experience through advocating Design and Innovation principles. During his 7 years in China, he promoted the User Experience Design discipline as User Experience Manager at Autodesk and Local Coordinator of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) in Shanghai.

Itamar holds a MA in Design Practice from Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), for which he received a Distinction Award for his thesis Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments.

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