Online gaming sweeps China

BEIJING — At one of Beijing's many Internet cafes, near-silence reigns: headphones on, eyes glued to the screen, web users play games online en masse, helping to make China one of the industry's top markets.Young men crowd around terminals for role-playing adventure games while women gamers tap away to keep troupes of dancers in line -- and international companies want part of the action.In 2009 the industry raked in nearly 26 billion yuan (3.8 billion dollars), up 39.5 percent over the previous year, according to government data.But experts say the booming market will mostly benefit homegrown firms, whose products are more closely tailored to the tastes and preferences of the more than 380 million people using the Internet in China."Foreign game developers are having a tough time competing in China," said Daniel H. Vlad, a senior analyst specialising in the online games and e-commerce sectors for research house JLM Pacific Epoch in New York."So far only one Western game, World of Warcraft, has really succeeded in China," he said."Chinese users spend significantly more time playing games than their Western counterparts. Foreign games typically fail to deliver enough content... Chinese gamers eventually lose interest and move on."Lisa Cosmas Hanson, the founder of Niko Partners which provides market intelligence on China's video game industry, explains that gamers here like a variety of challenges, from cultural and mythical history adventures to sports.She said that beyond the cultural differences keeping foreign developers from breaking through to Chinese gamers, opaque government regulations in a sector tightly controlled by the ruling Communist party are the "biggest hurdle"."Games created in China account for more than 60 percent of the market," says Yu Yi, an analyst for IT research firm Analysys International.Three firms, all listed in New York on the Nasdaq, are leading the way: Tencent, Shanda and NetEase -- which has the operating licence for World of Warcraft in China.According to Analysys Inter

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