Giants at Home and Abroad: Chinese Video Game Companies Go Global

Chinese companies are among the world's largest video game firms. They are on the move in some of the fastest growing markets.

Tuesday, October 3, 2023
4-5:30 pm
Wallis Annenberg Hall (ANN) 106
University of Southern California
free, but reservations required (see below)

Video gaming is already the largest and most profitable entertainment industry in the world. In 2022, games generated $176 billion in revenue. There are three billion gamers worldwide. China’s market is the world’s largest and Chinese game companies are dominant there, but those giants are busy moving in and developing new regions. Lisa Cosmas Hanson, CEO of Niko Partners, will identify the key Chinese firms involved and discuss the strategies they are using to extend their reach. Are they succeeding?

Lisa Cosmas Hanson is CEO and president of Niko Partners. She spoke about the Chinese video game market at USC in 2018. Niko Partners is a market research and consulting firm covering the Asia games market and its consumers. Lisa founded Niko Partners in 2002 and has since honed her expertise on the Chinese and Southeast Asian games industry that has benefitted Niko’s clients: Companies that are global leaders in game publishing, game services, hardware, and investments. Prior to founding Niko, she served as Lead Strategist at Viant, and as Director, Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker and Senior Analyst, Asia Pacific at IDC Research. Lisa began her career as Equity Analyst at Marusan Securities in Tokyo. Lisa appears regularly in the media such as The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, Reuters, BBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times, among others. She is based in the U.S. but travels to Asia regularly to give presentations at industry events and engage with the market.

The event image above combines two gaming events in Egypt: one featuring Lenovo Legion equipment and another featuring PubG, partially owned by Tencent.

Event location:
Wallis Annenberg Hall (Sheindlin Forum, ANN 106) is at the lower left of this map.

Getting to USC: public transportation | driving & parking

This workshop is sponsored by the USC U.S.-China Institute. It is offered in partnership with the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia and with support from the Freeman Foundation.