Many sites are blocked in China from blogspot to wikipedia…even YouTube most of the time. However one has to ask why oh why do they block the lolcats?
What are the lolcats? Its a collection of animal pictures, mostly cats, with some funny caption written in the style of how one might imagine cats and kittens speaking (if they were slightly brain damaged). The site is essentially non-political and is more family friendly than Miramax.
Although a popular Internet Meme, the Lolcats on their I can haz cheesburger? site is about as edgy as safety scissors….or maybe that is its true subversive charm.
This may also be China’s attempt to cut down on the traffic of Kitty Porn.
With the news that ZT Games has attracted almost 100 million in venture funding in China, the China game industry has heated up a little more from an already simmering pot of financial euphoria. The China game industry in some ways can be considered the only real profitable and viable B to C internet play in China.
“ZTgame needs the money to stay on a fast track,” said Liu Xin, an analyst with Analysys International. “It may acquire game development teams or obtain game authorization from overseas gaming companies, as its competitors did.”
China’s online gaming sector has been growing rapidly over the years, spawning a swarm of local operators like Shanda and NetEase. These companies started by operating games developed by overseas companies and paying license fees. But in recent years, the Chinese companies have stepped up efforts to build their own research and development capacities, sometimes through acquisitions.
Now that the industry is attracting non gamers and opportunists alike, what changes can we see in the future? My guess is the following:
More casual games to attract mainstream users and the big league in revenues
More foreign companies coming to China
More emphasis on security
More original IP attempts by Chinese companies
More Non-Game companies in China coming into the gaming space.
So lets watch, blog and check on this space a year later.
-frank yu
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