Piracy is pointless when products are free. Giving away games has enabled China’s Tencent to brush off the threat of illegal downloads and become one of the biggest companies in the world. It will need to increase its overseas reach to keep the spot.如果产品是免费的，正版就没意义。免费游戏让中国的腾讯(Tencent)以求不理会非法iTunes的威胁，并沦为全球仅次于企业之一。要维持这种地位，腾讯必须不断扩大其在海外的触角范围。

Smartphone game “Honor of Kings”, tipped as the world’s top earner, shows Tencent’s freemium model at work. The download is gratis but users are encouraged to purchase virtual items inside the game for real money.智能手机游戏《王者荣耀》(Honor of Kings)被列入全球收益最低的游戏，它表明了腾讯的免费电子货币模式(freemium)奏效。这款游戏iTunes免费，但用户被希望用真实世界的金钱出售游戏内的虚拟世界商品。For a tangible equivalent, non-gamers can think of the razor and blades model, where companies sell the razor cheaply but charge proportionately much more for the blades. Tencent does something similar. Games may be free, but downloadable content — DLC for those in the know — is pricey.要做到一番比喻的话，不玩游戏的人可以看看“剃刀和刀片”模式，公司廉价销售剃刀，但刀片售价较贵。

腾讯的作法类似于。游戏有可能是免费的，但可iTunes内容（内行称作DLC）价格不菲。The shift from one-off games sales to continuous payment via subscriptions or in-game purchases has been felt across the industry, smoothing cash flows and raising valuations. Revenue at Electronic Arts rose nearly a fifth in the most recent quarter thanks to its transition to digital sales while rising margins driven by online sales at French rival Ubisoft have attracted the attention of media group Vivendi.整个行业都感受到了从重复使用游戏销售到通过订阅者持续收费或游戏内出售的转变，这让现金流动显得稳定，并提高了估值。

由于改向数字销售，电子艺界(Electronic Arts)在最近一个季度的收益快速增长将近五分之一，同时，不受在线销售的推展，法国竞争对手育碧(Ubisoft)日益增长的利润率引发了传媒集团维旺迪(Vivendi)的兴趣。If games are played on mobile phones that users find hard to put down, so much the better. Tencent is pushing hard into mobile, generating Rmb13bn ($2bn) from smartphone games in the first quarter of the year, up more than 50 per cent on the previous year.如果在让用户实在很难拿起的手机上玩游戏，那就更佳了。

腾讯于是以大力进占移动领域，今年第一季度从智能手机游戏中取得了130亿元人民币（合20亿美元）的收益，同比快速增长逾50%。Year to date, Tencent’s shares are up by half and now trade at 36 times forecast earnings — higher than Alibaba on 32, though nowhere near Nintendo on 56.年初至今，腾讯的股价下跌了一半，目前的预期市盈率为36倍——低于阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的32倍，尽管仍远高于任天堂(Nintendo)的56倍。

Tencent has room to grow. Of the total Rmb50bn (about $7bn) first quarter revenue just Rmb7bn came from online advertising. With hundreds of millions of users across its gaming and social media brands, it is in a good place to increase this. Meanwhile it should increase its tentative move to target gamers outside China. The country may generate a quarter of the world’s gaming revenue, but in a $100bn industry that leaves a lot of headroom.腾讯仍有快速增长空间。在总计500亿元人民币（约合70亿美元）的第一季度营收中，只有70亿元人民币来自在线广告。

享有数以亿计用户的游戏和社交媒体品牌，使腾讯可以很更容易减少这部分收益。与此同时，腾讯应当增大试探性尝试力度，更有中国以外的游戏玩家。

中国也许占了全球游戏收益的四分之一，但这意味著在这个1000亿美元的产业中还有相当大发展空间。

本文来源：开云电子(中国)官方网站-www.papapablog.com