HONG KONG - CHINA has the world's largest population and one of the world's largest economies. Soon, it will get a massive virtual universe to match.

Swedish software company MindArk, which operates the online game Entropia Universe, has authorised a Beijing company to create what it calls the largest ever virtual world for China, the company said yesterday.

Entropia Universe, which has more than 580,000 players, is an online game set on a fictional planet in which users can work, meet friends and buy virtual land with real cash.

Gothenburg-based MindArk said in a statement that the Chinese virtual world would have a capacity of seven million concurrent players and aimed to draw 150 million users in total.

The new game is expected to generate US$1 billion (S$1.5 billion) in economic activity every year.

Ms Elina Heng, a spokesman for the new project, said MindArk aimed to launch the new game in August next year.

MindArk's chief marketing officer Carl Uggla said the company would train artists from its Chinese partner, Cyber Recreation Development, in Gothenburg to design and run several planets within Entropia Universe.

'They will design the planets to suit China and Chinese users,' Mr Uggla said.

He declined to say how much the deal was worth.

He did say it was up to Cyber Recreation Development to decide whether to allow the Chinese government to censor communications within the Chinese planets.

Cyber Recreation Development could not be reached immediately for comment.

Some have expressed worries that China's lack of Western-style civil liberties will carry over to the new virtual society.

Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper predicted yesterday that a virtual police force would exist in the Chinese game and that it would not allow players to protest against the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, in which hundreds of people are believed to have died.

But Mr Uggla said yesterday: 'We don't have any police force in Entropia Universe.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS