2010-07-22 14:41

SHANGHAI - China's online games market shrank in the second quarter for the first time in more than a year, shedding 1.8 percent on the prior quarter to 7.34 billion yuan, data from research firm iResearch showed on Thursday.

China is the world's largest Internet market with over 420 million Web surfers. However, its red-hot online games segment has faced strong headwinds this year on a lack of new titles and an increasingly competitive environment.

On an annual basis, China's online games market grew 8.8 percent in the second quarter, its slowest in more than a year.

Tencent Holdings had the biggest market share at 27.2 percent, extending its lead over once top dog Shanda Games, who had a share of 15.9 percent in the second quarter.

In third place was NetEase's with 15.2 percent of the market.

Tencent reports its second-quarter earnings on August 11 after market hours.