China's Ministry of Culture Regulates Mobile Gaming Industry
Ministry of Culture, 12/13/13
China's Ministry of Culture (MOC) has released a list of mobile gaming companies found to be engaged in illegal or infringing online cultural activities. 10 major mobile gaming platforms were named, including UCWeb's 9game.cn and Qihoo 360's (NYSE: QIHU) 360 Mobile Assistant, as well as 8 popular mobile games including Locojoy's mobile social card RPG I'm MT Online and Playcrab's mobile card RPG Da Zhangmen.
According to the MOC, the following were a focus of the recent investigation:
1. Mobile game platforms that include the wording "casino" in their operations, allegedly promoting gambling through mobile games.
2. Mobile games utilizing a randomized raffle during operations to induce gamers to spend legal currency or online game virtual currency to obtain online game products and services.
3. Enterprises operating mobile online games without having obtained proper licenses and permissions.
The recent investigation gives companies a grace period to rectify infringing activities. For companies that fail to comply within the allotted timeframe, administrative fines will be issued.
Editor's Note: According to Chinese law, to conduct online cultural activities, companies must apply for an online culture business license. To be eligible for such a license, a company must have miniumum registered capital of RMB 1 mln for online activities not including gaming, and RMB 10 mln for gaming activities.
Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "China's Ministry of Culture to Regulate Mobile Gaming Industry" MD 11/22/13 issue.
Keywords: mobile gaming wireless Ministry of Culture regulation
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