Original article published on Global Times (China) (03/21/18) by Zhang Hongpei
Experts believe the prosperity of the Chinese e-sports market hinges on industry standardization and ensuring that e-sports adhere to mainstream sports values. "The professional standards and creativity of gaming teams should be further enhanced," says Ransenhuizhi Investment Fund Management's Zhang Jiayuan. "But you cannot neglect one definite advantage here, that is, the sector's big consumer market, which highly accepts e-sports." A January iResearch report estimated that total market capitalization of China's e-sports sector topped $10.26 billion in 2017, mainly due to the rising popularity of e-sports smartphone apps. "Most upstream resources in the e-sports industry have been in the hands of the Internet giants and game developers," Zhang notes. Tencent and NetEase have obtained leading positions in terms of channels, content, and rule setting, and Seeinfront Capital co-founder Zhu Bo says the majority of Chinese e-sports businesses are controlled by only a few dozen professional clubs. "An athletic status should be the core of e-sports, despite it being based on electronic devices," Zhang contends. IHS Markit calculated that China comprises 57 percent of the global e-sports audience, with approximately 3.5 billion hours of e-sports videos viewed and 11.1 billion e-sports streams delivered in 2017.
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