Investors looking to celebrate after buying into the US$1 billion Nasdaq listing of Shanda Games, the largest US-listed initial public offering (IPO) in more than a year, were left mystified late last month, their fingers burnt as the share price turned flat.

Shanda Interactive, China’s largest online game company, did all right for itself in spinning off Shanda Games, taking the unit to market at the top of an indicated range of $10.50-$12.50, and increasing the amount of shares offered by over 30%.

But by the end of the first day’s trading, buyers of the stock were counting their losses as the shares closed down 14% to $10.80, with little in the way of recovery since then, the price hovering at around $11.01- $11.70 and closing on Monday at $11.26.

That baffled many investors who were looking for a repeat of the success earlier this year of Changyou.com, a similar games-division spin-off by Sohu, China’s second-largest portal. Changyou shares surged 25% on their first day of trading on the Nasdaq in April. Read the article in Asia Times.

Once a year, around mid summer, there is the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (or more commonly known as China Joy).  All the major game companies in China and thousands of their fans gather in Shanghai for the 4-day event.  It is like the Electronic Entertainment Expo (or E3) in Los Angeles, but noisier and perhaps more entertaining as the game companies showcase their latest hits with models in game customs.

It is organised by General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), the government department for regulating online game. The above photo was taken in China Joy 2009, where models dressed up as characters in the online games for fans to take pictures.

More photos about China Joy:

1) The venue of China Joy

2) More models showcasing online games in China Joy

As the last of the 14-part series in Global Times, this week we will try to sum up what are the key differences and how successful Chinese Internet competitors synthesized components from their Western counterparts, all the while innovating to accommodate the unique characteristics of the Chinese market.  Read article in Global Times.

For people interested in founding their own ventures in the China, this week’s article in Global Times might be an inspiration to them. Many foreigners worked in the country’s first Internet ventures. And many have arrived since. We look at several stories of westerners who founded their own companies in China – people who had only a smattering of Mandarin at the start and ended up running companies where everyone else is Chinese.