The in-game advertising market in China is expected to double this year from last year's level as advertisers are exploring marketing opportunities on the increasingly popular gaming platforms.

Revenues from the in-game advertising, or IGA, will reach 250 million yuan (US$35 million), comparing to last year's 120 million yuan, Shanghai-based consultancy iResearch said yesterday in a report.

"The value of IGA is being recognized by more and more marketers, while the game operators are creating more ads inventories in their games to diversify their revenue stream," the report noted, estimating that the IGA market will exceed the one-billion-yuan mark in 2011.

Currently the IGA spending comes mostly from transport, daily necessities and fast consumer goods sectors.

For instance, Shanghai Volkswagen, a joint venture between Volkswagen and the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, integrated its Polo series into an online car racing game to let the players drive the virtual sedan and get a good idea of their product.

Most used

The Chinese IGA market last year was led by Tencent Inc, which acquires players through its instant messaging service QQ, the most used IM in China. It made 20 million yuan from IGA.

More than 120 million Web users in China have played at least one title in the past year, with an average of 7.3 hours spent on games every week. Twenty-one percent of them played more than 10 hours a week, according to figures from the China Internet Network Information Center.

(Shanghai Daily February 20, 2008)