China to hold first int'l online game expo

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 08, 2004

China to hold first int'l online game expo

The China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference, the first of its kind launched by the Chinese government, will be held here Jan. 16-18.

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The China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference, the first of its kind launched by the Chinese government, will be held here Jan. 16-18.

Kou Xiaowei, a senior official with the State Administration of Press and Publications, said Wednesday that this time all the related departments are cooperating to sponsor this expo, including the State Administration of Press and Publications, National Copyright Administration, Ministry of the Information Industry, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education, in a bid to show that they intend to devote themselves to developing the local online game industry, fight against digital piracy and lead online game players to play such games in a healthy way.

Kou said China is currently one of the world's largest online game consumption markets, but its capability of self-designing game software is still weak. In a bid to promote the enthusiasm of domestic game companies to independently design and produce online game software, the Chinese government should intensify its fight against piracy.

"Moreover, only when we protect intellectual property better will foreign companies be more enthusiastic about investing in China," he said.

So far, 130 domestic and overseas companies, including Sony, Nokia, Shenda and Sohu, have applied to attend the expo.

Ding Lei, head of Netease, and Chen Tianqiao, head of Shenda --both on the list of China's Top 50 Richest Men last year due to their success in online game business -- will give speeches at the expo.

In 2003, China's online game industry was worth 2 billion yuan. But 70 percent of the market share was occupied by South Korean game software, and the China-made online game software only occupied 10 percent of the market.

In the same year, the Chinese government wrote its online game software development plan into its "863 High-Tech Program".

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