We are one of China's leading online game developers and operators in terms of revenues, focusing on massively multiplayer online role playing games (“MMORPG”) for personal computers. Many of our games are designed on a “Free-To-Play” model, by which users can access a Free-To-Play game at no cost, but must pay for virtual products and services within the game. We have over 1,000 employees at our headquarters in Shanghai, China, and over 3,000 Sales & Marketing personnel throughout China. In November 2007, we successfully carried out an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “GA”.
High Quality and Successful Products
Since our company was founded in November 2004, we have been one of the fastest growing and most profitable companies in the Chinese online game industry. We believe our success is largely attributable to our ability to internally develop, operate and market fun and engaging games. Our first game, ZT Online, was launched in January 2006 and was voted the most popular online game in China in 2006 according to the International Data Corporation, or IDC, a leading market research firm. In May 2007, ZT Online reached over 1 million peak concurrent users (“PCU”), a milestone that only a handful of games in the world have achieved. And in April 2008, ZT Online surpassed the 2.1 million PCU mark, representing a new reported PCU record in the Chinese online game industry. Our second internally-developed game, Giant Online, open beta launched in March 2008 with over 237,000 PCU, eclipsing ZT Online’s achievement during this stage.
Sales and Marketing Network
Giant has built a nationwide distribution network to sell the prepaid game cards and game points required to play its games, which as of March 31, 2008, consisted of over 270 distributors, and reached over 116,500 retail outlets. We have established over 530 proprietary liaison offices with over 3,000 dedicated liaison personnel on the ground to place and promote our products in internet cafes, software stores, supermarkets, bookstores, newspaper stands, and convenience stores located throughout China. In addition to retail outlets, users can also purchase virtual prepaid game cards on our separate game websites. Our advertising and promotional campaigns on the internet, television and in print support these activities.
State of the Art Server Technology
Our proprietary server technology enables a large number of concurrent gamers to play on a single shard. ZT Online’s servers, which support over 40,000 simultaneous players in the same shard, has a larger concurrent user capacity than most other MMO games currently operating in China. Further building on our technology platform, Giant Online is designed to support approximately 1 million concurrent users in a single shard. We expect Giant Online to have the largest concurrent user capacity in a single shard among all MMO games in China. Players will no longer be forced to stop the game to “cross” shards in order to interact with certain players. This results in a better game experience for players – more intense action, more complex social networks, and more fun gameplay.
