KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Online gaming is pushing the online content services market in Asia-Pacific, with China and South Korea the main drivers of growth, while online music and video falter due to piracy.

A survey by Frost and Sullivan issued Tuesday showed revenues for paid online content rose 25.6% in 2007 and Was expected to grow by 21% to reach a market size of US$4.67bil by end-2008.

"While online music and video have suffered the effects of piracy, the online gaming segment has managed to shake-off such threats, accounting for as much as 81.3% of the revenues in 2007," it said in a report.

It said revenues from online music accounted for about 10.8% last year and the remaining 7.9% from online video services.

Frost & Sullivan forecast the paid online content services market - covering 12 Asia-Pacific countries ex-Japan - recorded revenues of US$3.86bil last year.

It estimated this market to grow to US$9.2bil by end-2013 at a compound annual growth rate of 15.6% (2007-2013).

"Online gaming is expected to lead the growth of digital content at a CAGR of 14% (2007-2013), and will continue to account for the bulk of the premium or paid content revenues in 2013 with a market share of 75.1% (US$6.9bil)," it said.

However the report excluded other premium online content services including news, greeting cards, research, dating and credit reports.

China and South Korea were accounted for over 79% of the revenues from premium online content in the region. China was the single largest online gaming market, underpinned by the increasing penetration of entertainment applications.

Frost & Sullivan said China was expected to contribute up to 45.7% of the region's paid content revenues by end-2013, driven by its online gaming market. Some key factors driving the growth of premium content services would be increasing broadband affordability and adoption by households and rising popularity of portable entertainment devices.

Other factors included the Internet service providers' move to offer value-added services, hence increasing the availability of downloadable and subscription-type content services.