In a new report, Pearl reports that last year the sector grew by 25 per cent to $5 billion, led by Tencent ($1.4 billion), Netease ($749 million) and Shanda Games ($680 million), while Shenzhen ZQ Game became the first native game company to be listed on the Chinese stock exchange after an initial public offering worth some $110 million. Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, saw its userbase increased 25 times over the course of 2010, surpassing 100 million in February.
What does this mean for Western gamers? Well, Pearl is reporting that Chinese online gaming firms will spread their wealth overseas through mergers and acquisitions over the course of 2011. Many free-to-play MMOs from the East have already been getting established in North America and Europe.
