China's gaming industry: the biggest investments and acquisitions of 2013

2013 may be over, but that’s no reason not to go back and take a look at the year that was for China’s games industry. And as it turns out, it was a year that set some pretty impressive records when it comes to investments, acquisitions, and the movement of capital. Here are some of the investment superlatives of 2013 for China’s gaming industry, courtesy of Phoenix News (Chinese):

Sector with the most angel investment: Mobile games. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone given China’s mobile growth in 2013 and the relative ease and low cost barriers to developing a good mobile game. Most of the money invested in China’s game industry in 2013 went into mobile games.

Biggest investment total for a mobile gaming company: Chukong, which raised $10 million in a series C round in April, and then another $50 million in October in a series D round from New Horizon Capital as well as GV Capital, Sequoia Capital, Steamboat Ventures, and Northern Light.

Highest acquisition price for a browser games company: Shanghai’s Youzu was valued at 3.8 billion RMB ($622 million) in an acquisition by Susino Umbrella Co., a company that makes and sells umbrellas and tents. That may sound weird, but it’s not hard to see why any company would want a piece of Youzu’s business; the company made tens of millions of dollars in profit just in the first half of this year.

Highest acquisition price for a mobile game company: Mobile dev Playcrab was acquired by Ourpalm for 1.7 billion RMB ($278 million). The acquisition was driven mostly by the success of Playcrab’s martial arts-themed game Dazhangmen, which made quite a splash in 2012 and broke records twice by generating more than 10 million RMB in revenue ($1.6 million) in a single day.

Highest acquisition price for a game platform: No surprises here: 91 Wireless takes the crown, having been acquired by Baidu this year for a whopping $1.9 billion. This may be a bit of an unfair inclusion, though, because as I wrote at the time of the acquisition, 91 Wireless brings more to the table than just a games platform.

There you have it: 2013 in Chinese gaming investment superlatives. But what will 2014 bring? Can these records be broken this year?

(Phoenix News via QQ Games)