Consumer China

Shanda Games – players spend less

  • Published 03 Jun 2010

Average revenue per user plummeted by 21% from the fourth quarter of last year following the botched launch of an expansion pack for its flagship game.

Background:Shanda Games (GAME:Nasdaq) is the listed subsidiary of Shanda Interactive (SNDA:Nasdaq), which maintains a 71% stake in the company. Shanda Games holds 21% of the online games market, just trailing the market leader Tencent with 25.3%, according to Analysys International, a consultancy. The company focuses on massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), which contributed 93% of total revenues in 2009. It launched NCSoft's Aion in May last year, adopting a new revenue model that charges players by the hour instead of just charging for the purchase of virtual tools and weapons. In January this year it acquired US-based Mochi Media, which is privately held and runs a network that helps developers distribute their games on websites such as Facebook.

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