Taiwan's largest online computer game company, Gamania Digital Entertainment Co Ltd (
Since bringing Korean firm NCSoft's "Lineage" online fantasy game to Taiwan in July 2000, Gamania has picked up more than 950,000 players, who log on to its servers to compete or cooperate with thousands of other gamers.
But Gamania's profits have spawned a host of competitors, including local tech giant the Acer Group (宏電集團), and the market of predominantly teenage boys hankering to don virtual chain-mail and skewer goblins after school is quickly becoming saturated.
Time to strike out for new territory, says Gamania's chairman and chief executive officer, Albert Liu (
"Of course we are really excited about ? China. But China is a pretty huge market. We need capital, we need human resources and we need a product. So I think the best place to get these three elements is in Hong Kong," Liu said.
"In Hong Kong it's easy to get capital, and we can train people from the China, and of course we need the product so that's why we joint ventured with NCSoft," he said.
Gamania, which hopes to offer its interactive digital fantasy world to Chinese consumers early next year, made its first step overseas in July to introduce Lineage in Hong Kong through a 50/50 joint venture with NCSoft.
Gamania is also in the process of applying to Taiwan's securities regulator for a listing on Taiwan's over-the-counter TAISDAQ exchange, which is planned for September.
Gamania has not settled on the details of the offer, such as pricing or size, but high-speed Internet service provider GigaMedia Ltd (
A stroll through Gamania's offices is a time warp to the Internet boom of 1999. Twenty-something staffers in T-shirts and jeans weave through cubicles adorned with action-figure toys.
A full-scale video arcade version of the "Dance Dance Revolution" game sits in the staff lounge. Liu, 31, says he last wore a tie about three months ago, the first time in years.
But the big difference between Gamania and the money-burning dot-coms of the Internet bubble is in its bottom line. In the first half of 2001, Gamania had sales of NT$551 million and made a pretax profit of NT$215 million.
Though there are no comparative figures for the year-old company, but the firm is ahead of its own schedule and will likely deliver pretax revenues of NT$319 million and earnings per share of NT$5.63, on anticiapted sales of NT$1.0 billion this year.
China's state media estimates China has about 26.5 million Internet users -- bigger than Taiwan's entire population of 23 million.
However, Gamania is far from giving up on its home market, where 43 percent of the population has access to the Internet, according to media research firm Nielsen/NetRatings. Gamania is developing its own game software that's aimed at a new segment of the market.
While the project is still under wraps until its estimated fourth quarter launch, Liu revealed that it would trade knights and wizards for cute animal characters in a bid to target younger players.
"Lineage's customer base is from 15-25 and male, so boys play this game, right?," Liu said. "And with the new product we hope we can set up a new community, like (ages) eight to 15, and 50/50 male and female," he said.
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