Gaming online
Every day when primary school student Tian Xiaolei finishes his homework, his parents allow him to spend 45 minutes online playing video games as a reward for his straight As at school. It is "the only moment in a day" that the 11-year-old can sit back and not worry about school work.
Studying at Zhongguancun No 3 primary school, the most renowned elementary education institution in Beijing, Tian is a diehard fan of Mole Manor, an online game especially developed for Tian and his peers. "Almost everyone in my class is talking about Mole Manor," said the boy.
Tian and his ilks' online playtime has become a huge business for game developers.
TaoMee Inc, the developer of Mole Manor and one of the nation's top gaming companies, said it had approximately 57.7 million active accounts on the Chinese mainland as of the third quarter of 2012.
Most of the players are Chinese teenagers.
"Our strategy of increasing active user growth and engagement is proving effective as evidenced by the 32 percent increase in sequential user growth and stable average revenue per user during the third quarter of 2012," said Benson Wang, TaoMee's co-founder and chief executive officer.
The gaming industry for children is becoming a main driver for the Internet-based entertainment industry in China.
Teenagers are also the major component of the country's Internet industry.
Nearly a quarter of China's Internet users were aged between 10 and 19 by the end of 2012, data from China Internet Network Information Center showed.
China's weekly story (2013.01.21-01.27)
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