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"Advertising and delivery of healthcare products, travel services, insurance and investment planning products and.... multi-player online games!"
The Dynasty group continued its marketing assault on China this week with the signing of an agreement that could significantly advance public interest and participation in Dynasty Gaming's online, multi-player Mahjong game and the roll-out of prepaid card sales.
Dynasty has signed a Letter of Intent with Sun Media Holdings Ltd., China's largest privately owned media company, to form an equally-owned joint venture enterprise. The new entity will create a structure in China, similar to that of Canadian and U.S. associations of retired persons (ARPs), which will serve as a branded portal for the advertising and delivery of healthcare products, travel services, insurance and investment planning products and multi-player online games.
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The new association, envisaged as the Chinese Association of Retired People (CARP), would derive revenue from all of these product and service offerings.
Approximately 134 million people in China are retired and this number is expected to increase substantially over the next decade. Dynasty says the purchasing power of this retiree and pre-retiree community is estimated at $75 billion annually, a major portion of which is available for expenditure on lifestyle products and services.
Sun Media, with assets of nearly $260 million comprising 11 companies with investments in 30 media operations and 60 media brands spread over nine countries, represents a powerful structure for targeting and influencing a significant portion of this retiree market. Apart from its 34 magazines and newspapers, Sun Media's 10 television networks together with its websites and various multimedia products reach 80 million viewers in China and over 100 million globally.
Albert Barbusci, chief executive of Dynasty Gaming claims: "Retirees and those people nearing retirement in China represent more than 10 percent of the country's population - they have a currently unsatisfied appetite, supported by disposable financial resources, for entertainment, leisure and healthcare products.
"Many of these people are regular Internet users and an even greater number are long time Mahjong players. The Government of China's recent announcement to permit the operation of small-wager gaming rooms within aged-care facilities is further proof of the demand for gaming products.
"Our play-for-points version of Mahjong, which we anticipate will be accessible through the use of prepaid cards early in 2007, will have huge appeal for this retiree audience. And our capability, through a partnership with Sun Media, will provide an unprecedented channel for creating awareness of our game and for generating sales of our prepaid cards which, as announced last week (see previous InfoPowa reports), will be distributed by Junnet through China in Internet cafes and retail kiosks."
Sun Media's chief executive Dr. Bruno Wu said, "Our company is not only the premier media organization in China, but we are also a premier brand builder. We regard the creation of an association for China's retired persons as an opportunity to build a strong brand that will benefit a very large number of people by providing a much sought-after range of branded products and services through an online portal. We envisage that our joint company will design, create, promote and manage this portal. We have the ability to design and deliver content in our publications specifically for retiree readers and subscribers and, together with Dynasty, we can provide easy access to a range of products and services including an online version of Mahjong, a national sport in China.
"The partnership with Dynasty Gaming will provide us yet another opportunity to do what we do best: create on-line communities around very targeted audiences, and provide sticky content and services to these communities, which we eventually monetize. Dynasty Gaming brings to Sun Media their experience of the gaming industry for retirees, which we leverage with our knowledge of branding and on-line marketing in the Chinese market."
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