Reports

China's mobile gaming market - including revenues from both single-player and multi-player games - increased approximately 45% YoY to reach roughly RMB 113 billion (USD 16.8 billion) in 2017. In 2017, mobile games adapted from popular IP (e.g. films, novels, PC games, and comics), and acceleration in the uptake of mobile e-sports and virtual reality-based games continued to buoy market growth.

Mobile gaming-related M&A deals in Q3 2018 focused heavily on the domestic market, with at least 12 major domestic mobile gaming M&A or venture financing deals announced during the quarter. Multiple major Chinese mobile gaming firms also went public or issued IPO prospectuses during the period. The number of investments in overseas mobile gaming or sector-related firms was much more modest than in quarters past, but did include a strategic partnership between Tencent and Japan's Square Enix to jointly develop high-budget, heavily marketed games based on original intellectual property, and to cross-license existing intellectual properties. As the new video game approval process in China has stalled since a regulatory agency restructuring began in late-March, we expect to see overseas expansion efforts ratchet up in the quarters ahead.

China's mobile healthcare market continued to gain momentum in Q2 2018, supported by China's overall boom in healthcare spending, steady increase in mobile internet adoption, government policy calling for informatization of the healthcare system, and advances in new technologies like artificial intelligence.

Healthcare spending in China has increased dramatically, driven by the rapid aging of the population, the Chinese government's aggressive expansion of universal insurance coverage, the contribution of heavy water and air pollution issues to higher incidence of chronic ailments like cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and rising average incomes and changing lifestyles, with Chinese consumers now attaching increasing importance to health and fitness. China's healthcare market spending reached approximately RMB 4.9 trln (USD 777 bln) in 2017, according to the China Health Management Association, and the government, as part of its Healthy China 2030 strategy for improving local healthcare infrastructure, has set a target market size of RMB 16 trln (USD 2.54 trln) by 2030.

In less than a year, China's dockless bicycle-sharing market has exploded from a handful of players and tens of thousands of bikes to become one of the hottest segments in China’s IT sector. Two of the top players now have valuations reportedly as high as USD 3 billion, have deployed a combined total of over 14 million bicycles, and, together with several of the other leading operators, have begun accelerating overseas expansion efforts.

In 2016, total users of dockless bicycle-sharing services in China reached over 20 million, and total market size exceeded RMB 1 billion. Rapid expansion into new cities and steady uptake by new users will drive up these figures dramatically in 2017 to over 200 million users and nearly RMB 10 billion in revenues.

Mobile instant messaging (“mobile IM”) has become a key battleground for control of China’s internet services market. The country's rapid growth in mobile internet usage, coupled with a smartphone user base exceeding 500 mln, has precipitated a new wave of smartphone-only mobile IM services which can be directly monetized or used to channel mobile internet traffic to other mobile properties.

China's smartphone mobile IM apps are in the early stages of monetization, first implementing revenue models proven successful on PC IM platforms, and also introducing a number of new business models with strong growth potential. Leading monetization of the space is Tencent's WeChat, which began rolling out a series of value-added services and WeChat-integrated mobile games in late Q3 2013. As WeChat dominance of China's mobile IM space grows, a number of smaller apps are fighting to carve out niche positions, focusing on areas like friend-making and interest groups.

China’s mobile internet advertising sector, driven by the deployment of 3G networks in 2009, increasing uptake of smartphones, and steady growth in both the mobile subscriber base to over 810 mln and mobile Internet users to over 290 mln, is poised for rapid growth over the next 5 years.

Published in August, Marbridge's 2010 Chinese Mobile Internet Advertising Report provides a detailed, 105-page overview and analysis of the Chinese mobile internet advertising sector, including:

• Market Size and Growth Forecasts
• Market Growth Drivers
• Revenue Models
• Company Profiles of 13 Major Industry Players
• Network and Platform Infrastructure Development Status
• Regulatory Environment
• Case Studies

China's mobile search market, supported by a surge in the mobile subscriber base to over 805 mln, 3G subscribers to 25 mln, and mobile Internet users to over 277 mln, is on track to record high double-digit growth in 2010.

Published in July, Marbridge's 2010 Chinese Mobile Search Market Report provides a detailed, 75-page overview of the Chinese mobile search sector, including:

• Market Size and Growth Forecasts
• Market Growth Drivers
• Revenue Models
• Partnerships
• Company Profiles of 15 Major Industry Players
• Network and Platform Infrastructure Development Status

China's mobile advertising market, supported by a surge in the mobile subscriber base to over 530 mln and active WAP users to over 40 mln, is on track to grow over 40% in 2007 and 55% in 2008.

Published in October 2007, the 2007 Chinese Mobile Advertising Report provides a detailed, 196-page overview of the Chinese mobile marketing and advertising sector, including:

• SMS, MMS, and WAP Push
• WAP, Mobile Search, and Mobile Video
• 2D Barcode, LBS, and Mobile In-Game Ads
• Market Size and Growth Forecasts
• Company Profiles of over 35 Major Industry Players
• Network and Platform Infrastructure Development Status
• Case Studies

A heavy focus on ecosystem development and, increasingly, on overseas expansion has fueled aggressive M&A strategies among China's dominant Internet companies: Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, and Xiaomi (collectively, "BATJX"). BATJX acquisitions previously comprised mainly Internet and mobile service firms, but have expanded in scope to include areas such as offline retail, logistics, hardware, financial services, TV and film production, newspaper publishing, property management, sports teams, and cosmetics brands. The BATJX M&A race continues to change the competitive positioning of each of the acquiring companies, and is also providing many target companies a lucrative, early exit option compared to the longer time frame and less certain prospects of an IPO.

China's PC-based online gaming market revenues reached approximately RMB 86 billion (USD 12.7 billion) in 2017, up 3.8% YoY. Improved Internet penetration, up from approximately 53.2% at the end of 2016 to 55.8% at the end of 2017, rising average incomes, and the burgeoning trends in virtual reality games, gamecasting, and e-sports helped restore positive growth. An increasing number of China's online game operators have also begun to develop blockchain-based gaming platforms, providing new opportunities for expansion.

Client-based PC gaming revenues jumped 11.3% YoY in 2017 to approximately RMB 64.9 billion (USD 9.6 billion), comprising 75.5% of total market revenues. Browser game revenues continued their slide, dropping 16.6% YoY to RMB 15.6 billion (USD 2.3 billion), comprising 18.1% of total market revenues. Social game revenues fell 5.1% YoY in 2017 to RMB 5.5 billion (USD 0.8 billion), comprising 6.4% of total 2017 market revenues.

China's PC online healthcare market continued to develop rapidly in Q2 2018, supported by China's overall boom in healthcare spending, steady increase in internet adoption, government policy calling for informatization of the healthcare system, and advances in new technologies like artificial intelligence.

Healthcare spending in China has increased dramatically, driven by the rapid aging of the population, the Chinese government's aggressive expansion of universal insurance coverage, the contribution of heavy water and air pollution issues to higher incidence of chronic ailments like cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and rising average incomes and changing lifestyles, with Chinese consumers now attaching increasing importance to health and fitness. China's healthcare market spending reached approximately RMB 4.9 trln (USD 777 bln) in 2017, according to the China Health Management Association, and the government, as part of its Healthy China 2030 strategy for improving local healthcare infrastructure, has set a target market size of RMB 16 trln (USD 2.35 trln) by 2030.

Based on extensive interviews with an established panel of top search engine marketing professionals, empirical research of the major Chinese search engines' new platforms and features, and Marbridge's daily coverage of Chinese search-related news and announcements, Marbridge's Quarterly Chinese Paid Search Survey Report helps readers understand where China's paid search market is heading and which search engines are best positioned to gain traffic and revenue market share.

The 47-page Q1 2016 issue of the report - released April 28, 2016 - examines the evolving competitive dynamics between Baidu, Qihoo 360, Sogou, and Alibaba's Shenma (SM.cn), especially as the internet goes increasingly mobile and O2O services becomes a key new battleground. A partial selection of featured topics includes:

• Mobile Search: Strategies to Drive Uptake and Monetization - Examination of Baidu, Qihoo, Sogou, and Alibaba's (Shenma's) efforts to win query share and improve monetization of the rapidly growing volume of mobile search traffic.
• Baidu O2O and Mapping Initiatives - Summary of Baidu's key new investments and development initiatives in the O2O and mapping space, and analysis of the strategically most important components of Baidu's O2O ecosystem.
• Feed Ads as Competitive Threat to SEM - Analysis of the potential for feed ads like those in WeChat Moments or Sogou News to serve as a substitute for search engine marketing.

China’s microblogging sector, which saw gradual development over the past several years, has expanded rapidly in 2010, reaching over 40 million users by September. While most of China's microblogging operators remain focused on ramping up user bases before beginning to monetize, several have already begun using their microblogging platforms to drive traffic to other paid and ad-supported services.

Published in November, Marbridge's 2010 Chinese Microblogging Market Report provides a detailed, 53-page overview and analysis of the Chinese microblogging sector, including:

• Market Size (Users) and Growth Forecasts
• Market Growth Drivers
• Revenue Models
• Differentiating Features
• Competitive Positioning
• Profiles of 9 Major Platforms

China's smart device market, excluding communications and computing devices like smartphones and tablets, but including smart TVs and set-top boxes, grew over 38% YoY to nearly RMB 160 bln in 2016, and is expected to grow roughly 35% to approximately RMB 215 bln in 2017. Key drivers for the sector include robust private equity investment, strong smart hardware ecosystem development initiatives, and increasing consumer awareness and uptake.