The Chinese search giant has a new venture now. It is now entering the online game sector by providing some games through its newest platform called Baidu Youxi. With the recent release of Baidu Hi (instant messenger service) and this online gaming platform, Baidu is considered the biggest Chinese platform that probably cover all the needs of the Chinese young adults.

At present, Baidu does not develop its own casual online games, but chose to offer a portfolio of entertainment through some partnerships with the renowned interactive entertainment media companies such as Shanda Entertainment, Dreamwork Net, and 51wan. Currently, there are seven (7) free online games available to the Chinese users, and most of them such as 纵横天下, 方便面三国, 天空左岸 are very popular in China. Out of four of these seven games, four are developed from 51wan, as reported by this casual game developer.

There are two main selection criteria that set by Baidu in choosing the games, first it must be home-made, i.e. made in China, and secondly, all its online games must be healthy, which mean all family members are welcome to play and view. There will be no violence, sex that can be found on its casual games. Also, games that allow users to gain access to online casino, poker, with access to third-party betting exchange will not be permitted on this Baidu Youxi. Since Baidu Youxi adopt a business model of free-to-play, I still can’t figure out what will be their major revenue streams. But one thing for sure, as more and more online game users are becoming sophisticated, the games available must be in extremely high quality.

Why Baidu engaged in this online game sector? This can be explained by the market outlook of the online game sector in China. China recorded a CNY$12.8 billion during a fiscal year ended December 2007. It has been project forecasted more than 20% growth each year in the next five years. Thus, by year 2011, China’s online game sector will generate more than CNY$40.1 billion. By then, China will be a mature online game market such as South Korea.

I just came across a new casual game provider that called Kickplay. Like Pictogame, it offers its users a variety of games that can be customized according to one’s preference and taste. Users are allowed to upload their own pictures, images into the games, and share with the public with the option of embedding the games to the blogs or social networking sites. Currently, they allowed an user to quick post the game to iGoogle, Blogger, Piczo, Xanga, Netvibes or to be shared on Facebook. Kickplay, initially focuses on gaming, seems to look for sources of revenue that based on Google AdSense by offering a wide range of games that we familiar with, such as Solitaire, Match 3 and etc. Though the feature of using other shared images and sounds available on the site and replace the default with those into the games is very interesting, but I found that it isn’t possible to edit, or delete any game that I have created at this moment.

Kickplay is officially launched in Alpha today. However, their patent approval of system and method for the games they created is still pending at the time of my writing.