Revenue from China's online gaming industry reached 8 billion yuan (about 1.04 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006 and could quadruple by 2010 as internet access becomes more widespread.

Online gaming revenue in China will grow 30 percent annually to reach 30 billion yuan (3.9 billion U.S. dollars) by 2010. The rapid growth in online gaming has created opportunities for telecom, internet, computer, software and consumer electronics firms, which earned 33 billion yuan (4.3 billion U.S. dollars) from online gaming in 2006.

Statistics from the China National Network Information Center showed that the number of computers hooked up to the worldwide web had reached 59.4 million by January 2007 and there were 137 million internet surfers. Internet cafes across the country are often packed with people playing online games till the early hours.

Previously, American and Japanese games dominated the market, but China-made online games held 65 percent of the domestic market in 2006 and had export revenues of 20 million U.S. dollars last year.

"Navigation World," a game produced by Suzhou Snail Network Game Technology Co., has been successfully exported to Europe and the United States, the first time a Chinese company has entered the "kingdom of games".

The Information Industry Ministry has included online gaming in the 2006-2010 plan for software and information service development and will support the healthy development of the industry.

Source:佚名