Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | February 2009 8 Cover Story Internet Penetration Rate in China Source: CNNIC The Center defines ‘netizens’ as any Chinese citizen aged six and above who has used the Internet in the past half a year. CNNIC says the number of ‘netizens’ in the United States was 218 million by the end of 2007. By the end of June 2008, the Internet penetration rate in China had reached 19.1%. If one compares the percentage of Chinese households with access to online home computers to the percentage of US households with PCs, then the US scores much higher. According to Nielsen Online, a global Internet media and market research company, in November 2008 the total universe of users for household digital media in the US was 222.2 million people, of whom 155.6 million were active users, spending a monthly average of 37 hours, 33 minutes, online. According to the US Census Bureau in 2006 (the most recent available survey) there were 126.3 million housing units in the US, meaning the household digital media penetration rate is 176.3%. The US also scores better for credit and debit card penetration—an important element in most global business models for online gaming. If one looks at penetration of mobile phone handsets enabled with Internet browsers as a proportion of all digital users however, then China is very strong. CNNIC says as at June 2008, the amount of‘netizens’ surfing the Internet with mobile phones had reached 73.05 million. A total of 28.9% of China’s 253 million ‘netizens’ accessed the Internet with mobile phones in the six months to June 2008, said the report. The other good piece of news from the perspective of soft gaming marketers is that these Chinese Internet users are overwhelmingly young. The CNNIC report says 68.6% of ‘netizens’ are under the age of 30. And 30.3% of all users are aged just 18-24 according to the survey. The global revenues of the online gaming industry are growing rapidly according to Victor Tong, President and CEO of PacificNet, a listed company based in Macau, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, providing a range of gaming hardware and software services including e-commerce, Internet and mobile gaming for the Chinese market. “Based on forecasts from Juniper Research, revenue of global mobile gaming services will expand to US$10.5 billion in 2009 from US$3 billion in 2006,” Netizen’s Age Structure Source: CNNIC says Victor Tong. “User scale will continue to grow rapidly in developing countries. In the coming six years, cumulative revenue will reach nearly US$57 billion worldwide with the Asia- Pacific region accounting for a large share of this,” he adds. Mr Tong said that in the period of 2006 to 2011, cumulative revenue of the Asia- Pacific region is predicted to account for 38% of the global market share of mobile gaming revenue. “We are excited about how rapidly mobile gaming is expanding and the huge market potential. Despite the worldwide economic slowdown, we are seeing impressive growth opportunities in China, Macau and Asia and steady demand for our products in mobile gaming, lottery and e-commerce.” he added.