China's online gaming market raked in $637 million among all its operators in the second quarter of 2008 -- an 11 percent increase on the quarter and a 66 percent jump over last year, says China-based consultant Analysys International.

Shanda Interactive Entertainment has the highest marketshare in the region at close to 20 percent. Shanda publishes Ragnarok Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online and Three Kingdoms in China, among others, and most recently began work with THQ's new China office on a microtransactions-driven Company of Heroes for the region.

In second place is Journey to the West publisher NetEase, with 12.8 percent of the market, while Zhengtu Online publisher Giant Interactive comes in third with 11.4 percent. Giant recently invested $51 million dollars into social networking service 51.com with the aim of expanding its reach.

The remaining leading online game companies Analysys listed in order of marketshare are The 9 (10.9%), Tencent (10.5%), Sohu (7.4%) Perfect World (7.4%) 9You (5.6%), NetDragon (3.8%), Kingsoft (2.8%) and China.com (1.7%)

Business consulting firm Pearl Research said earlier this year that popular Chinese games earn $7 to $12 average revenue per user per month. According to Pearl, NetEase's Journey to the West is China's most popular title in terms of users, supporting 1.66 million concurrent users at its peak. Giant's Zhengtu Online, the majority source of the company's $209 million in revenues, clocked 1.52 million peak concurrent users.

[The preceding article by Leigh Alexander originally appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]