Thursday, 6 November 2008

Online gaming provider set to expand presence in Siem Reap

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Peter Olszewski
Thursday, 06 November 2008

CIDC Information Technology, the Phnom Penh-based company that launched Cambodia's first online multiplayer game, JX2, in May, is about to widen its presence in Siem Reap.

"Later this year, if we can generate enough demand we are thinking of extending our domestic network to Siem Reap to connect interested internet cafes and game centres directly to our content network," CIDC's chief operating officer, Mike Gaertner, told the Post in Siem Reap.

He said Siem Reap cafes currently connected to the game are using Camnet ISP, part of Telecom Cambodia.

"This has access to fast fibre optical connections from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, so playing our game is smooth and fast," he said, "But unfortunately Camnet is not connected to our network here in Phnom Penh, so traffic has to travel from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, into Vietnam and back to Phnom Penh to our servers.

"For the internet cafes this means they have to buy full unlimited internet access from Camnet between 256 to 512 kbps to offer our game.

This is making it very costly for the cafes to offer our game, which I believe is preventing many shops from trying."

Gaertner became caught up in a game of his own last week when he tried to find cafes in Siem Reap, a city with lots of streets with no name.

"I have found four cafes where our game is almost exclusively played, but it's hard to get any street names because the owners themselves did not know.

"Players said there are perhaps 10 more places in Siem Reap, but I did not have time to find them. We are planning to send our sales staff up there after the Water Festival to do a more detailed search."

JX2 has created a buzz amongst Cambodians gamers, and CIDC Information Technology hopes to use it to further drive Cambodia's emerging online market.

"In China and Vietnam, 70 percent of internet usage is for online entertainment," Gaertner said.

"So that is where they make money. Cambodia is not different. If the choice was there, I think more people will use online entertainment."

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