By Sun Zhe
A Chinese web game developer is trying to grab market share by awarding players virtual currency issued by its competitor, a move taken by analysts as a publicity stunt.
Shanghai-based game operator and developer The9 announced on its website that it would award players of its new game with QQ coins, the country's most popular virtual currency, issued by rival game producer Tencent.
The9's newly developed Mingjiangsanguo online action game, similar to Tencent's DNF franchise, started recruiting players Wednesday, and The9 said it would dispense a total of 200 million QQ coins, which can be used to buy items in Tencent games and various Tencent services.
Tencent, also China's largest and most-used Internet service portal, sells QQ coins for 1 yuan ($0.15) each, but 100 QQ coins are sold for 80-90 yuan ($11.70- $13.20) on taobao.com, China's most popular online trading site. Tencent had an active user population of 484.9 million by the end of the third quarter.
"The9 is using the influence of QQ coins to market its game," said Zhao Xufeng, a gaming analyst with Shanghai-headquartered iResearch. "And The9 is trying to snatch players from Tencent by this means and make up for its straight loss in the second and third quarters of the year."
The9's net revenues for the third quarter declined by 94 percent year-on-year to 25.5 million yuan ($3.7 million), mainly due to a decrease in revenue from World of Warcraft (WOW), a game developed by US gamer Blizzard, for which The9's license expired June 7, 2009, according to the company's quarterly financial release.
The NASDAQ-listed company's shares dived from $14 to about $7 in trading after Blizzard authorized Netease to operate WOW in China.
The company, which used to rank among China's top five online game sites, recorded a net loss of 73.6 million yuan ($10.8 million) in the third quarter and 79.2 million yuan ($11.6 million) in the second, contrasted with a net income of 80.5 million ($11.8 million) in the third quarter last year.
"I may give The9's game a try," said 26-year-old DNF player Wan Dong. "I might keep playing if it is really good, but I will never do that for the award coins."