Angry Birds opens first foreign store

By Inside Retail Asia July 17, 2012

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Rovio Entertainment, the developer of Angry Birds, has opened an Angry Birds brand store in Shanghai, the first one outside its home base in Finland.

The store in Xujiahui area, which sells licensed apparel and iPhone cases, is the first of 25 such outlets scheduled to open in China by the end of this year.

And besides the stores, Rovio plans to launch 10 to 20 Angry Birds theme parks in China, with the first one expected to open in Haining, Zhejiang province, in October.

“The products (sold in stores and parks) are uniquely designed for Chinese consumers,” Paul Chen, Rovio China’s GM, told Shanghai Daily in an interview.

“We are opening the stores to provide our fans with the easiest way to get authorised Angry Birds products.”

Angry Birds is one of the world’s most popular mobile game on all platforms, including Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, with a total of one billion downloads. China is Rovio’s second-biggest regional market contributing almost 150 million downloads.

But like many other application developers, Rovio’s revenue from the mobile game is relatively limited because of piracy and lack of effective payment methods in China, analysts said.

Rovio plans to grow its license income to 30 per cent of its total income in China by the end of this year, compared with 10 per cent now, Chen added.

To achieve the target, it will open 25 stores this year, probably three in Shanghai. Its second outlet in China will open within a month in Beijing.

An Angry Birds-themed iPhone case costs 138 yuan (US$21) while a T-shirt costs 299 yuan at the Shanghai store.

Meanwhile, the company will open amusement parks in collaboration with domestic partners with Angry Birds themes. Besides the Haining park, it is planning parks near Beijing, Chengdu in southwest Sichuan province, and Guangzhou in Guangdong province.

Rovio will have more than 100 employees in China by the end of 2012, compared with 11 now. The additional employees are for a new animation program studio in Shanghai and research centres for online games for Chinese users.