Game Developer FunPlus Begins to Focus on Chinese Market
Chinese media outlet Jiemian reported on Monday that Pu Guannan, Vice President of FunPlus, a game R&D company, delivered a speech at the Beijing International E-sports Development and Innovation Conference on October 22, explaining in detail how the company has created its own e-sports ecosystem.
FunPlus, founded in 2010, mainly distributes game products to overseas markets. It owns FunPlus Phoenix (FPX), one of the world’s most successful esports organizations, and overseas game brand “King of Avalon”. FunPlus ranked first in the list of Chinese game manufacturers that went overseas in 2020 released by App Annie. According to official data, FunPlus currently covers more than 200 countries and regions all over the world, with over 100 million users.
In 2017, FunPlus set up the esports organization FPX, and got its foot in the door with e-sports projects such as League of Legends and PUBG Mobile.
According to Pu Guannan, in addition to League of Legends, FPX has set up departments for many projects such as Identity V, Call of Duty: Mobile, Counter-Strike, VALORANT, and League of Legends: WildRift.
In the e-sports industry, China leads the world. According to the global e-sports market revenue statistics and forecast report released by Omdia, China has become the e-sports market with the highest revenue in the world.
Pu Guannan said that in order to explore the Chinese market, FunPlus set up FunPlus Huyu this year, which has four major business segments, including games, investment, e-sports and culture.
In order to strengthen the integration of traditional culture and today’s consumption habits, FunPlus focuses on the business of an immersive cultural experience. At the same time, FunPlus has invested in games, animation, film and television teams, including Palia.
SEE ALSO: Stay Patient, Stay Diverse: A Mobile Game’s Road to Industry Legend
Many Chinese game companies that have made achievements overseas have begun to shift their focus to the domestic market. In 2020, Genshin Impact, developed by domestic game manufacturer miHoYo, and Rise of Kingdoms, released by Lilith Technology, achieved global success. After being acquired by ByteDance for $4 billion, Moonton, a successful game company in Southeast Asia and South America, has also tried to expand the domestic market.
