Government suspends permits for online games

New troubles for China’s billion-dollar app industry: regulators have indefinitely suspended issuing new sales permits for online games. The media regulator also called on managers of companies such as Tencent and Neteasy at a meeting to stop „solely fixating on profit“ and to help counter what it claimed was widespread video game addiction. This was reported by the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Chinese tech companies have been taking a beating throughout the year. Most recently, the government has cut the time children are allowed to spend playing games (China.Table reported). While many of the providers’ basic applications are free, the Internet giants finance themselves largely through in-game microtransaction. fin