First Mahjong World Champ Crowned

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Hong Kong player awarded the gold medal and a $500 000 cheque

Hui Chung-Lai, a Hong Kong player who has more than 50 years of experience in the ancient game of Mahjong this week clinched the inaugural World Series of Mahjong Championship title in Macau with a score of 423.11 points. He received the golden Mahjong Champion medal and a US$ 500 000 check from the CEO of World Mahjong Limited, Mr. John Hardyment.

Two other Hong Kong players achieved second runner-up and fourth runner-up, while the third runner-up went to the Taiwanese actress, Yu Chieh-Ping.

The three-day, first annual World Series of Mahjong, held at the Wynn Macau Resort from June 15 ended play in the early morning of June 18 at 12:30am. A total of 265 Mahjong players from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, U.S., U.K. and Denmark participated.

Sponsor PacificNet has worked closely with the World Series of Mahjong and other partners to promote the game of Mahjong via the internet as well as mobile internet portals. Two players - Cui Jian and Feng Zhibin who qualified online through a website jointly organized by 3Q1 and PacificNet, made it to the final 32, each bagging a lucrative prize of US$ 5 000. PacificNet also launched "Mahjong Mobile Pact", a java- based mobile game designed to help players better understand the rules of the game and to allow them to practice their Mahjong skills anywhere on a Java- enabled mobile phone.

Tony Tong, Chairman and CEO of PacificNet commented, "While the World Series of Mahjong has come to an end, we would like to congratulate all of the participants. It has been our pleasure being the designated telecom and mobile provider for the Mahjong competition with the largest purse in the world."

According to industry forecasts, mobile online games will become vastly more popular with the advent of 3G networks in China. Forecasts frequently note that online and offline mobile gaming differs greatly in terms of their service models. Online gaming uses a telecom service model earning revenues from traffic fees during play, while offline mobile gaming is simply a game application downloaded onto a handset for a small fee.

The forecasts predict strong growth for WAP, JAVA and BREW, while the proportion of SMS-enabled games will drop. With over 400 million mobile phone users, China has already become the largest mobile population in the world. Moreover, the number of mobile users is still growing rapidly and has far exceeded the number of PC based internet users, which is about 120 million, in China.