10 misconceptions on casual gaming - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

"Girls are no real gamers". This and nine other misconceptions on social and casual games are addressed by Marc van der Chijs, serial internet entrepreneur and angel investor in Shanghai, published in the Business Insider.

1. Gaming is a waste of time and is bad for kids
This is something I hear often but that I totally disagree with. I believe there is a creative and educational layer in many games. But of course it doesn't mean that kids should play all the time. I have two kids myself and find that online games can be an addition to their development. It's important that children also play outside and do sports. Next to that they can also play online games, but they should only play for short lengths of time. Research shows that kids of 3 years old should play maximum 10 minutes per day and 6 year olds should not be online more than 30 minutes per day. If children do that games can be very beneficial. They can learn a lot in games, for example learning to work together, but also getting more self confidence when you achieve something in a game.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-misconceptions-about-online-casual-and-social-gaming-2011-5#ixzz1LvaTI5M9

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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The booming value of online game firms - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Online gaming has developed in the past five years from a niche market into a booming industry, writes former Spil Games Asia CEO Marc van der Chijs in his weblog. Valuation for gaming companies like Zynga and Playdom have gone up dramatically and valuations will continue to rise.

Times have changed though, nowadays online games are everywhere. Especially social games like Farmville managed to get a lot of new people to start playing games. In the early days social networks helped the growth as well: if your friends invite you to play a game the chance that you will try out the game is a lot higher...

Companies like Zynga (7bn USD) and Playdom (750ml USD) are exceptions, but others see their value also go up:

But for non-social game companies valuations so far where a bit lower. It seems that may be changing though and that investors are starting to realize the potential of these companies. This week it was announced that Bigpoint raised a USD 350 million round at a USD 600 million valuation. The company is not a social game company but focuses on browser based MMO (=massive multiplayer online) games, that are free to play. Bigpoint earns its money with virtual items as well, just like Zynga and Playdom. The big difference is that Bigpoint owns most of its users and is not dependent on a site like Facebook.
I expect that valuations for many other online game properties will go up in the near future, especially for those companies that get a large part of their revenues from virtual goods and that are not dependent on Facebook for their traffic. It will be interesting to see at which valuation these companies are able to raise rounds – or are snapped up by players like Zynga looking to have their own traffic! Based on what I am hearing in the market the revenues of many of these players are doubling every year because of virtual items (just like Bigpoint) and I won’t be surprised to see a billion dollar IPO for one of them within the next 18 months.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Why Weibo will surpass Twitter - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

China's twitter eauquivalent Sina's Weibo might very soon pass Twitter in popularity, writes Tudou.com co-founder  Marc van der Chijs on his weblog, although the rest of the world is still largely ignorant about this internet service.

Weibo is certainly already miles ahead in terms of functionality. But most people outside China have no idea about the service and its functionality. Beijing-based blogger Bill Bishop therefore put a post on his blog today with an embedded presentation of Weibo’s history and main functions, including lots of screenshots.
Silicon Valley pay attention: this product is much better than Twitter, and Twitter (or other clones or even social network sites) can probably learn a lot just by looking at some of Weibo’s functions. It’s so good that I wonder if it might actually one day be able to take on Twitter.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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If I were Groupon - Marc van der Chijs

Image via Wikipedia

China Internet veteran Marc van der Chijs has a thorough look at the already sorrow state of Groupon's effort to enter the China market, together with the domestic giant Tencent. Things go from bad to worse. After Van der Chijs describes what has happened till now, he concludes:

If I were Groupon, I would seriously reconsider their current China market entry. If they want to enter fast they need Tencent, there is no way around it. But if they give themselves a bit more time there are other ways. They made the mistake of mainly hiring foreign managers and focusing in their recruitment drive on consultants and investment bankers with MBAs. That may work in the US, but that’s not what you need to be successful in China.

Marc van der Chijs by Fantake via Flickr

The article was original written for the Silcon Valley Insider. Last night Van der Chijs wrote is last update, and things look even worse now:

Last night an article on the Marbridge Daily named the 2 managing directors for Groupon in Beijing and Shanghai. From their LinkedIn resumes (see here for Mads Faurholt and Raphael Strauch) it looks like they both got their first real jobs in 2007 and have zero operations or China experience. They seem to be very smart, ambitious and aggressive guys, which is perfect for the European or US market, but less so for cooperation with a leading Chinese Internet company. 

More background in his original article.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Inflation pushes business and workers out of big cities - Marc van der Chijs

Many do not return after CNY via Wikipedia

Tudou.com founder Marc van der Chijs warns in his weblog that higher prices and wages is forcing businesses and people out of Shanghai and other larger cities in China, getting critical after Chinese New Year:

For years prices have been rising steadily in China. The price of fuel is about 3 times as high as 10 years ago for example, but also daily necessities such as rice keep on going up in price. That is the same all over China, but especially in the big cities the housing prices are also going through the roof. They are now at such a high level that even white-collar workers cannot afford to buy apartments anymore.
I realized this for the first time about 2 years ago, when an employee came to me with a salary increase request. He wanted to buy a house and could not afford it without a higher salary. I did not grant him the higher pay so he left the company, but it made me contemplate about the relation between the level of salaries and the housing prices. They were getting out of sync fast. But housing prices only kept on rising after that, and at a much faster pace than the average salary increase.

Now the increases have reached a critical level, Van der Chijs writes:

There are signs that this may happen sooner rather than later: in Saturday’s English-language newspaper the Shanghai Daily a reporter wrote that so far 90% of the domestic staff did not return from their hometowns to Shanghai after Chinese New Year. Last year the figure was around 30% at this time. And the staff that come back are asking for wage increases of up to 30%, meaning that a full-time cleaning lady now earns around USD 500 per month. If these people are now all staying in their home towns because of better economic conditions very soon their white-collar colleagues will follow their paths.

More in his weblog.

Marc van der Chijs 

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Tudou turns to internet TV - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs Flickr

Tudou, one of China's largest video hosting companies, is making a surprise move by making the first -made-for-internet soap, explains Marc van der Chijs, co-founder of Tudou, to CNNgo. Not surprisingly, the production wants to reach the 250 younger Chinese at the internet with the theme of "love",
In CNNgo:

Van der Chijs explains that, “Although producing shows ourselves is more expensive than licensing shows we feel it is worth it. Not only does this offer us the opportunity to differentiate ourselves once again from the competition, but also we have more ways to recoup our costs. Instead of having pre-loaders and other advertising as main revenue drivers for our content, we are now able to also use product placement and script placement in the series."

He continues that “Being able to integrate brands into the story line is of course very attractive to brands focusing on a young, urban audience with a high disposable income (Tudou’s core audience).”

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Marc van der Chijs is a successful Dutch entrepreneur in China. He works also with the China Speakers Bureau. Are you interested in having him a a speaker? Do get in touch.

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