UKTI organises trade trip to Shanghai to promote British games industry

UK Trade & Investment is organising a trade mission to Shanghai next month in a bid to promote the British games industry in China.

Attendees will arrive in the city on July 24th, with a briefing and seminar scheduled to take place at the British Embassy the following day.

July 26th has been set aside for business matching, where UK firms will be able to attend one-to-one meetings with specially selected Chinese companies. On July 27th, participants will visit the Chinajoy convention and attend an evening networking reception. There will be more opportunities for business matching and another visit to Chinajoy the following day.

Participants will be responsible for paying hotel costs and air fares, although UKTI can help with organising reservations. UKTI is also offering a GBP 750 (1090 Euro) contribution to any participants willing to speak at the seminar. Anyone interested in attending should contact Mo Dowlut on 020 7215 4840, or email mo.dowlut@uktradeinvest.gov.uk.

China is a particularly lucrative market for online gaming, according to the UKTI, which says that operators' income reached GBP 336 million (488 million Euro) in 2005.

An estimated 29 million Chinese people played online games last year, including 15.9 million MMORPG players, and the Chinese online games industry was worth GBP 436 million (634 million Euro). That figure is expected to rise to GBP 1.02 billion (1.48 billion Euro) in 2010.

There's also money to be made in mobile gaming - UKTI figures value the 2005 Chinese mobile entertainment market at GBP 22.4 million (32.5 million Euro), and forecasts a rise to GBP 131.7 million (191.5 million Euro) within the next three years.

Within the same period, the number of handsets in the region is set to double to 660 million, and the number of mobile games purchased is forecast to rise from 13.91 million to 31.69 million.