The Chinese National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) approved 105 games on Monday in an attempt to loosen its recent implementation of stricter policy on domestic online games, which led to Tencent Holding Ltd.'s shares plunging on Friday, as an industry association stated in a post on WeChat.
The restrictions announced by the NPPA on Friday focused heavily on reducing player spending. Yang Wenfeng, Senior Vice President of Paper Games, stated, "The government prefers publishers to earn profits through fair practices and product innovation rather than deepening monetization strategies." The crackdown on these monetization strategies caused an $80 billion rout of Tencent, NetEase Inc. and Bilibili Inc. The NPPA attempted to rectify this by loosening its rules and announcing the inclusion of various titles from these companies during trading hours.
Tencent dived as much as 16%, this number being its biggest fall since 2008, with NetEase setting its own record with a fall of 28%. Bilibili declined by 14%, bringing the total value of the plunge to $80 billion on Friday.
