Singapore, August 4:

Subscription revenues of online gaming firms in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan rose 30 per cent to over one billion US dollars last year, an industry monitor said on Thursday. The introduction of new content and innovative business models will ensure the industry continues its rapid expansion, with a projected compounded annual growth of 19.7 per cent from this year to 2009, IDC said in a report. “The online gaming market has been on a dramatic growth

path, gaining the numbers in terms of gamers and blazing trails in the development of new business models, content and usage patterns,” Jun-Fwu Chin, IDC’s senior analyst for software research, said in a statement. Online gaming subscriptions enable users to play on Internet-based proprietary video game platforms with fellow subscribers anywhere in the world, usually involving fantasy, role-playing or combat scenarios. South Korea is the largest of eight online gaming markets in the region tracked by IDC, with revenue of $533.4 million in 2004, or almost half of the total market in Asia. The second biggest market was China at $298 million, followed by Taiwan with $190.9 million.