Reports

China's mobile gaming market - including both single-player and mobile online games – continued to see stable growth in early 2015, with the gradual slowdown of smartphone shipments and heavier market saturation partially offset by a slew of popular new releases and increased integration of social features driving greater user spending. Total Q1 2015 mobile gaming revenues reached approximately RMB 9.58 bln (USD 1.55 bln), up approximately 14% QoQ and 106% YoY, while the user base expanded to 483 mln, up roughly 2% QoQ and 16% YoY.

As revenue and user growth in China's domestic mobile gaming market transitioned from high to stable growth, the country's major mobile gaming firms continued to accelerate overseas expansion initiatives. Tencent (0700.HK) remained one of the most aggressive in its global expansion efforts, taking minority stakes in U.S. mobile gaming firms Glu Mobile and Pocket Gems during Q2 2015.

Investor interest in domestic mobile gaming assets also remained strong, with at least 10 domestic mobile gaming M&A or venture financing deals announced in Q2 2015; among them, at least 2 of the acquirers were from traditional industries unrelated to gaming, such as telecom equipment and broadcasting.

To help investors and game industry enterprises identify opportunities among China's mushrooming number of mobile game titles, developers, operators, and distribution channels, Marbridge has developed the Chinese Mobile Gaming Industry Matrix. The Q2 2015 edition of the Matrix provides details on over 300 leading mobile game companies and over 780 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 ~11% 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 34 mobile app/game distribution platforms, including:

• Platform Operator Name
• Investment Received (available for ~45% of platforms)
• Number of Apps Hosted (available for ~50% of platforms; dates vary)
• User Base (available for ~80% of platforms; dates vary)
• Cumulative or Daily App Downloads (available for ~60% of platforms; dates vary)
• Revenue Share Ratio with Developers (available for ~80% of platforms)
• Business Model (available for ~35% of platforms)

In addition, the matrix provides a Q2 2015 summary of Chinese mobile gaming industry news covering:

• M&A and Internal Investment Deals (15 items)
• Partnerships (17 items)

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