Photo/Shetuwang

July 8 (NBD) -- A number of Chinese cities are ramping up efforts to promote the e-sports industry. Following Shanghai's launch of opinions to make itself the "e-sports capital of the world", Hainan has announced policies to boost the industry by offering support in terms of capital, talents, taxes, event approval and content publicity. 

Driven by the favorable policies, internet companies and venture capital firms including MatrixPartners China, ZhenFund, and Qiming Venture Partners are flocking to the sector, changing the situation that e-sports clubs were entirely funded by the rich second-generation or the children of wealthy families. 

National Business Daily noticed that the e-sports industry raised up to 9.14 billion yuan (1.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, representing a nearly three-fold increase compared with the 2017 level. Last year, e-sports club Vici Gaming completed its Series A round of financing worth 50 million yuan, and FEG secured investment of nearly 100 million yuan. 

"China's e-sports industry is now at its preliminary stage, with the commercial value remaining to be explored, and the launch of supportive policies is beneficial to boost and regulate the development of e-sports," Wang Xu, general manager and chief analyst of gaming data research firm CNG, said to news outlet Yicai. "E-sports is becoming a new growth point in the field of digital contents." 

Though the e-sports industry is growing at a fast pace, many investors held investment decisions should be considered carefully as the whole industry chain is long and complex and not all e-sports related segments are worth investing. 

Along the chain, game firms such as Tencent, NetEase and Blizzard took the lion's share of the total revenue of the industry, and event organizers and clubs got the least. 

"The dominating position of game firms would continue in the short time, but game live streaming platforms, e-sports clubs and tournaments would see huge development space," remarked Chen Youyou, general manager of Shanghai Bilibili Esports Information and Technology Co., Ltd.

But in the eyes of Han Dawei, founding partner of Yao Capital, commercial development of e-sports events is still immature in that game companies now regards e-sports events as merely a means of promotion of the gaming market. 

Meanwhile, event organizers and participating teams haven't formed a benefit-sharing system, leading to the latter's tough commercial operations. Furthermore, the competitive level of e-sports events hosted by game live streaming platforms needs to be improved by hiring more powerful and professional players, Han noted.  

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn