The 2006 Annual Conference of Chinese e-Game Industry concluded on January 18th. Sources said that China planned to increase its support in China's online game industry by injecting capital, creating environment for the industry, protecting intellectual property rights and providing more guidance to businesses.

According to Xiaowei Kou, Deputy Director of the Audiovisual and Electronic Publishing Department, General Administration of Press and Publication of PRC, China's online game industry as a whole maintains a healthy and orderly momentum of growth. However, the government should offer a favorable environment for enterprises and protect the international image of this industry rather than working solely as a "money bag".

Online gaming is an innovative industry with IPR protection as its foundation to thrive. However, many businesses focus mostly on technological R&D and have very little sense of patent rights, giving rise to unfair competition and numerous disputes over IPR infringement. Xiaowei Kou said that relevant government agencies will crack down on "robot programs" or "private servers" as well as combating crackers of online games.

Statistics show that China's online gaming has a market size of RMB6.54 billion with 31.23 million users in 2006. The number of newly developed games has reached 218 and the export volume of online games made in China has exceeded USD20 million.

(People's Daily Online)