In 2016, the e-sports market revenue exceeded 50 billion yuan, and the market segment sought development

In 2016, the actual sales revenue of China's e-sports game market reached 50.46 billion yuan. However, behind the rapid development, most aspects of the e-sports industry have poor profitability.

In the coming year of 2016, local e-sports has developed vigorously, with both market size and user number reaching new highs. According to the "2016 China Game Industry Report", in 2016, the actual sales revenue of China's e-sports game market reached 50.46 billion yuan. However, behind the rapid development, most aspects of the e-sports industry have poor profitability. Giants have entered the market one after another to cultivate the market ecosystem, while some small and medium-sized companies have seized market segments to make positive breakthroughs and extend their business.

Giants accelerate cultivation of the market

In recent years, the domestic e-sports market has been developing rapidly. In 2016, several key factors worked together, and the e-sports market accelerated development.

The catalyst for the accelerated development of the e-sports industry is the affirmation and support of relevant policies issued by the state. In May 2016, the State Sports General Administration introduced an athlete registration system in the field of e-sports to standardize and guide domestic e-sports events and promote the standardized development of domestic e-sports. In December of the same year, the "2016 First CHINATOP National Cup E-Sports Competition" hosted by the State Sports General Administration was held as scheduled. At the same time, China Culture and Entertainment Industry Association E-sports Branch and China Mobile E-sports Alliance have also been approved and established by competent departments.

In addition, in the past two years, the capital market has also continued to invest in the e-sports industry, with well-known institutions including BAT, Wanda, Softbank, Sequoia, etc. investing in industry companies. In 2016, Tencent led the investment in Douyu TV, a live game platform, to US$100 million, and Focus Media, CITIC Guoan, Everbright Yinji Media, Yongtong Fund and others jointly invested RMB 640 million in Hero Sports. According to incomplete statistics, at least 6 companies in the e-sports industry received capital financing in the second half of this year, with a financing scale of nearly 800 million yuan.

Market segmentation for development

At present, China has initially formed an e-sports industry chain, including content production links mainly composed of e-sports clubs, players, anchors, e-sports event operators and program producers, as well as TV and Internet live broadcasts, content broadcast links composed of broadcast platforms, etc. However, from the current perspective, the profit link in the e-sports industry still mainly focuses on event operations and online live broadcasts. Other links are still in the stage of "burning money", and the threshold for industry participation has gradually increased.

Therefore, some small and medium-sized enterprises are trying to enter the e-sports market through segmented areas and expand their business while ensuring the healthy development of the enterprise.

IGXE.CN, an e-sports jewelry exchange owned by Softisland Technology, has built a safe and fast jewelry trading platform for e-sports players. According to public information, IGXE, a digital commodity service platform owned by SoftIsland Technology, has reached nearly maturity in project operations after 6 years of development. At present, IGXE is mainly engaged in popular European and American games such as World of Warcraft (WOW), RuneSCApe, EISK, SWG, EQ2, and FF14, and has established a good reputation and brand in Europe and the United States. This year, SoftIsland Technology has shifted its IGXE business from overseas markets to domestic markets.

Zhu Fuwang, chairman of the company, said that currently platform jewelry transactions mainly come from CS:GO and DOTA2. In 2017, the company will also enrich the platform format and introduce popular games such as "League of Legends" and "Overwatch" on the platform. These games will use training methods as the entry point and cooperate with domestic e-sports schools. In addition, SoftIsland will use IGXE.CN to integrate global player resources, channel resources and information resources to create a "transaction + content + social + channel" platform to open up the interaction between the platform and users, and between users.

In December 2016, Soft Island Technology also participated in the operation of China Top National Cup eSports Competition as a sponsor. Zhu Fuwang said that in the future, he will continue to try to participate in e-sports events and IP sponsorship and operation of events. Zhu Fuwang also revealed that with IGXE.CN platform users reaching a certain scale, soft island technology will consider the layout of mobile e-sports. In the future, the company will act as agent or develop mobile e-sports games, and at the same time, the company will also cooperate with mobile e-sports game companies in some recharge business and other aspects.

Editor: yvonne