China restricts online gaming to three hours a week
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Shares in Chinese online games companies slumped overnight immediately after authorities banned minors from gaming more than three hours a week. The shares latter rallied.
The strictest controls yet over youth entertainment hammered the shares of gaming platforms such as Tencent Holdings Ltd and NetEase Inc who can now only offer online gaming to children from 8pm to 9pm on Fridays, weekends and public holidays.
The state news agency Xinhua said that it was an advance on the previous limit of 1.5 hours per day.
NetEase shares fells seven per cent in pre-market trading in New York and Prosus NV, Tencent’s biggest shareholder, saw its shares fall 1.9 per cent in Europe following the annoucement.
However, the gaming companies said that minors (under 18s) account for only a small number of their players and revenue from minors yields less than three per cent of gross gaming receipts across China.
Now online games have to be linked to a state anti-addiction system and no-one can play games unless they first register their name and other details.
