"Gaming companies will be bigger than Google" - NCsoft boss TJ Kim
In an interview published today on GamesIndustry.biz, Tack Jin Kim, president and CEO of Korean MMOG publishing giant NCsoft, has said that he believes that the market for online games will outgrow the information services market online.
In an interview published today on GamesIndustry.biz, Tack Jin Kim, president and CEO of Korean MMOG publishing giant NCsoft, has said that he believes that the market for online games will outgrow the information services market online.
Commenting on the growth prospects for NCsoft, which is currently the world's largest operator of massively multiplayer game services, Kim said that he believes an explosion in the number of customers for online games is imminent.
"When I started NCsoft, everybody asked me why I wasn't building NCsoft as an information company, like Microsoft or Yahoo! or Google," he explained, "but my belief is that something people really want to have is something entertaining. I believe that the future of the Internet is on the entertaining side, not just on the information side."
He compared the advent of massively multiplayer games to the arrival of the Web: " I think that the number of Internet users, before the Web arrived, was not big. It was very small compared to the number after the Web. Like that, in the games industry, I think we are at the front of the arrival of something new, which will make normal people enjoy gaming."
While he would not be drawn on just how big that market could potentially be, Kim - who is widely recognised as one of the top entrepreneurs in the Asia-Pacific region - commented that "I'm not sure NCsoft can do it, but I believe that gaming companies will be bigger than Google. Far more people want to enjoy the Internet, not just searching it."
Other topics touched upon in our interview with Kim include the firm's overseas expansion, its plans to move into the console gaming market, and his views on difficulties posed for traditional retail by online gaming.
The second half of the interview will be published on Monday, with several more features about the fascinating South Korean games industry and marketplace to follow in the coming week.
[Click here to read the first half of our interview with Tack Jin Kim.]