Innovator creates highland for game industry in suburban Shanghai
If you are a mobile game lover, you may have played the tactical game "Arknights." But do you know who created it?
The Chinese developer of the game, Hypergryph, is based in a industrial complex, Lantian Economic City, in Shanghai's suburban Jiading District, with Pei Jiawen, general manager of the park, putting in decades of efforts.
Along with Hypergryph, more than 1,400 game companies, including the famous miHoYo, developer of popular games such as "Houkai Gakuen 2," "Honkai Impact 3," "Tears of Themis" and "Genshin Impact," are housed in Lantian Economic City.
Last year, the output value of China's game industry reached 230 billion yuan (US$32.54 billion), with Lantian contributing a 10th of it.
Lantian Economic City, located in Jiading's Nanxiang Town, was established in 1994, and Pei, 56, has made the park a home for game companies in the last 20 years.
Pei Jiawen delivers a speech during a recent industry conference.
It all began in 2009, when Pei got to know a young man, Lin Qi, who would later go on to become one of the most influential youn Chinese Internet entrepreneurs.
Lin founded the famous Chinese game company, Yoozoo Games, and registered it in Lantian.
He told Pei that the on-page game industry is embracing a flourishing era, which inspired Pei, who had the bright idea of turning Lantian into a highland for the game industry.
During the second year after Yoozoo settled in Lantian, the company generated 2 million yuan in tax income and, within a few years, the figure jumped to tens of millions of yuan.
Yoozoo was listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange in 2014.
Pei began to contact games industry players and learn how to help them develop well.
The first game company that Pei managed to persuade to settle in Lantian was a Beijing-based firm, which wanted to expand its business in Shanghai.
After Pei knew that Jiading was not the top choice for the firm, he flew to Beijing and met with the top executives talking up the advantages of Lantian. He made it and the company later set up its Shanghai office in Lantian.
Pei Jiawen (right, front row) poses with representatives of game companies during a football competition in 2017.
After talking to the game companies, Pei found that they had difficulties in dealing with the registration procedures, such as license application and tax declaration.
Lantian then launched a series of services such as registration, tax consultation, business consultation, as well as social events, including friendly sports matches and enterprise salons, for local game companies.
Pei consistently facilitated cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises.
"Game developers specialize in producing games, while our job is to provide what they need for creation," Pei explained. "We help them deal with things that they are not good at."
Lantian attracted more than 2,000 projects last year, with total tax collection of over 4.6 billion yuan.
"Along the way, we have made a lot of innovations but at the same time taken a lot of risks as well. However, it all seems worth it now," Pei said.
Pei Jiawen (right) checks Lantian Economic City's growth figures.
