Online gaming industry experts warn that the mobile Internet industry is headed for another dotcom-like bubble as hype around 3G and high-speed mobile media services builds up.
Sheree Tsao, managing director of InterServ International, told attendees at the Hong Kong Information Infrastructure Expo and Conference last week that the online game industries in Taiwan and China were burgeoning but actual profits were low or non-existent.
Taiwan-based InterServ International produces online and offline game software for the world market.
'The combined vendor investment is larger than the total market size, with 60 per cent to 70 per cent of vendors losing money,' Ms Tsao said.
She said a large base of registered users did not necessarily equate in revenues. She recalled the early days of dotcom fervour, when valuations were based on questionable statistics, including those for user traffic and registered user numbers.
'A lot of users are used to playing games for free,' she said.