China’s video game industry in stormy waters as the country grapples with its love-hate relationship
- China’s domestic video gaming revenue in 2020 rose to 278.7 billion yuan with almost half of the country now playing video games
- After an article in state media called video games ‘spiritual opium’ an investor sell-off saw nearly US$100 billion wiped off the value of gaming stocks
This is the first part of a series exploring China’s recent moves against the technology industry.
On July 14, 2017, the video gaming and social media tycoon went to Beijing to meet with the editors responsible for wiping out nearly US$17.5 billion (HK$136 billion) from his company’s market value.
People’s Daily greeted the billionaire with standard-practice courtesy for a person of his status: a massive LED panel displaying a digital welcome banner.
While photos of Ma and the paper’s senior leaders quickly went viral, no information was released about the content of the meeting.
At the same time as Ma’s visit, Tencent was busy introducing stringent new rules for child and teenage gamers – at the time calling them “the most serious anti-addiction measures in history”.