How a small eastern Chinese city is reshaping its economy to build the country’s next hotspot for video gaming development
- Shaoxing, a city in eastern Zhejiang province, in 2016 launched an ambitious programme to become China’s new ‘capital of online games’
- The city is banking on key infrastructure, subsidies and business-friendly policies to attract world-class video game developers and publishers
Six years into an ambitious programme to become China’s new “capital of online games”, Shaoxing has made room for about 11,000 skilled people and two publicly traded firms from the video gaming sector, according to official data, in a 2.8-square-kilometre industrial estate called E-Game Town in the city’s Shangyu district. There are now a total of 19 mainland-listed firms in the district.
From 2016, when Shaoxing started the programme, the prefecture-level city has so far invested around 6 billion yuan (US$843 million) to support video gaming firms that have established operations in E-Game Town, according to Ruan Jiandong, director of the industrial estate’s managing committee, at a China video gaming industry forum held in the city in July.
Firms in E-Game Town, which was developed on former rapeseed farmland near the Cao’e River in eastern Zhejiang province, receive preferential tax treatment, corporate subsidies, free employee dormitories and shuttle bus services. In addition, Ruan said 1,300 flats for young gaming talent have been built “within a 15-minute walk” to E-Game Town.
A company could be charged, for example, just 10 per cent of taxes payable to the local government in its first two years of operations in the industrial estate. E-Game Town’s managing committee also grants subsidies whenever a firm launches a new project.