Reports

China's 2015 mobile gaming market - including revenues from both single-player and multi-player games – increased approximately 48% YoY to reach roughly RMB 42 billion (USD 6.4 billion). Market growth slowed significantly compared to that of the past several years as the feature-phone-to-smartphone conversion of China's handset user base and the overall mobile gaming market reached heavier saturation. However, with many of the weaker firms now pushed out, Marbridge expects more rational market development, along with a boost from the budding trend in virtual reality-based games, to drive continued market growth.

As revenue and user growth in China's domestic mobile gaming market slowed in Q4 and Q1, the country's major mobile gaming firms continued to actively pursue overseas expansion initiatives. At least five of China's top mobile game publishers announced planned investments in western, Japanese, or Korean mobile gaming firms in Q1 2016.

Investor interest in domestic mobile gaming assets remained strong, with at least 14 domestic mobile gaming M&A or venture financing deals announced in Q1 2016. In contrast to past quarters, where many of the acquirers in these deals were either from the film and TV production industry, or traditional industries, like building materials and chemicals manufacturing, the majority of the investments announced in Q1 2016 were made by gaming companies or venture capital firms.

To help investors and game industry enterprises identify opportunities among China's sea of mobile game titles, developers, operators, and distribution channels, Marbridge has developed the Chinese Mobile Gaming Industry Matrix. The Q1 2016 edition of the Matrix provides details on over 420 leading mobile game companies and over 1,085 of the top games in Excel (read-only) format:

• Listing Status (public, to list, private)
• Location (city in which operator/developer is headquartered)
• Company Homepage URL
• Company Contact Phone Number
• Experience in Overseas Game Publishing (specific examples available for ~8% of companies)
• Games Operated/Developed (with top grossing games highlighted)
• Game Environment (Android, iOS, WP)
• Game Type
• Game Dates (expected release, beta test, commercial launch)
• Game Source (self-developed vs. licensed)
• Revenue Model (pay-to-play vs. in-game items)
• Game Operation Statistics (DAU, monthly revenue, cumulative downloads - as available)
• Game Homepage URL

The Chinese Mobile Gaming Industry Matrix also provides data on China's top 35 mobile app/game distribution platforms, including:

• Platform Operator Name
• Investment Received (available for ~35% of platforms)
• Number of Apps Hosted (available for ~35% of platforms; dates vary)
• User Base (available for ~70% of platforms; dates vary)
• Cumulative or Daily App Downloads (available for ~45% of platforms; dates vary)
• Revenue Share Ratio with Developers (available for ~65% of platforms)
• Business Model (available for ~25% of platforms)

In addition, the matrix provides a Q1 2016 summary of Chinese mobile gaming industry news covering:

• M&A and Internal Investment Deals (20 items)
• Partnerships (11 items)

The Chinese Mobile Gaming Industry Matrix is available either for one-off purchase or on a subscription basis with quarterly updates.