Niantic has partnered with the Chinese company NetEase to help launch Pokémon GO in China.

Pokémon Go set finally to land in China

US group Niantic’s tie-up with games company NetEase opens door to launch

“We absolutely intend to bring our existing games into China,” Mr Hanke said. “Beyond that, there are opportunities to build games in China, both for China and for the world.”

“Even before November’s fundraising, which valued the company at more than $1bn, Niantic was still “operating profitably” and had built a “very large nest egg” from Pokémon Go, Mr Hanke said.

“We continue to grow our cash reserves daily as we run the business,” he added, but the extra financing gives Niantic the ability to invest in its technology platform and make acquisitions.

Since Pokémon Go’s sometimes chaotic debut — in which servers were overloaded by demand, causing recurring service outages — Niantic is “so much better positioned” now, Mr Hanke said. The lessons from Pokémon Go were not just technical, though.

“In terms of dealing with public locations, government policy, regulations and public reaction to people being out in the real world [playing its games], we have built up our expertise there,” he said, so that in-game hotspots that cause real-world problems can be removed or changed.

Full Article Source: https://www.ft.com/content/8bf1964e-e5b0-11e7-8b99-0191e45377ec