Revenue from China's online gaming industry reached 6.5 billion yuan (US$840 million) in 2006, up 73 percent on a year earlier, and could quadruple by 2011 as Internet access becomes more widespread, according to market researcher IDC.

Online gaming revenue in China will grow 30 percent annually to reach 25 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion) by 2011, according to a report issued by IDC at an online gaming conference in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province on Wednesday.

The rapid growth in online gaming has created opportunities for other industries like telecom, internet, computer, software and consumer electronics, which earned 33 billion yuan (US$4.3 billion) from online gaming in 2006.

Young people between the ages of 18 and 30 account for the majority of the estimated 31 million people playing games online in China, according to IDC.

Previously, South Korean and Japanese games dominated the market, but China-made online games held 65 percent of the domestic market in 2006 and had export revenues of US$20 million last year.

"Perfect World," a game produced by Beijing Wanmeishikong Network Technology Co., has been successfully exported to Japan, earning two million US dollars in 2006, the first time a Chinese company has entered the "kingdom of games".

The Information Industry Ministry has included online gaming in the 2006-2010 plan for software and information service development and will support the healthy development of the industry, said Chen Ying, vice director of the ministry's electronic information product management department on Wednesday.

(Source: Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2007)