Steam, the world’s biggest PC game store owned by Valve, has recently supported RMB as an official currency and provided attractive incentives for Chinese users. Clearly, Steam has realized the potential market in China and is paying more attention on this market which was ignored before.
Before 2015, Steam was merely supported by Alipay in China for purchasing PC games while the settlement price was still in USD. Users without Alipay can only use foreign credit cards to buy games on the platform which causing a lot of trouble for them. After supporting RMD as official currency, Chinese costumers are capable of using local debt cards and credit cards. This action can help Steam access a wider range of costumers. Moreover, Steam also applied the same strategy used in Russia which is lower pricing model. So far, China and Russia are the only countries that have lower pricing model than those in other countries’ steam stores, because these two areas both have flourishing pirate game industries. Thus, by offering people with discounts, it can stimulate more people to purchase legal copy games.
Though it is still too soon to make the decision on how well Steam can do after applying these new policies, I have an optimistic attitude towards this huge market and believe more Chinese players will start to buy authorized video games.
Reference:
http://technode.com/2015/11/05/steam-now-supports-payments-rmb-offering-discounts-chinese-gamers/
