(Yicai Global) Aug 3 -- China’s biggest gaming companies, including Tencent Holdings and NetEase, took a battering in the stock market today after state-run media criticized the impact online gaming has on minors, describing it as “spiritual opium.”

Tencent [HKG: 0700] finished more than 6 percent lower at HKD446 (USD57.36) in Hong Kong, after slumping as much as 10.8 percent. NetEase [HKG: 9999] closed down 7.8 percent at HKD145.90, having earlier plunged 15.7 percent. The benchmark Hang Seng Index ended flat.

The internet addiction of minors is so widespread now that the impact of online games on their healthy growth cannot be underestimated, Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary published today. Internet games are often branded “spiritual opium” and “electronic drugs,” it said.

On the mainland, Sanqi Interactive Entertainment [SHE: 002555] slid 5.6 percent to CNY18.83 (USD2.91), while Perfect World [SHE: 002624] slipped 5.3 percent to CNY15.40. The Shenzhen Component Index edged 0.4 percent lower.

Last year, more than half of Chinese children and teenagers were nearsighted. Moreover, their schoolwork and personalities were blighted by their addiction to online gaming.

Meanwhile, Chinese game developers made CNY278.69 billion (USD35.84 billion) in revenue last year, a 21 percent increase from 2019. Tencent, which accounts for half of China’s market, raked in CNY156.1 billion last year, Xinhua said. The article singled out Tencent’s Honor of Kings for criticism.

According to Xinhua, reporters recently went to Luzhou city in Sichuan province for research. They found that 26.2 percent of surveyed students played online games once in two or three days, and 11.7 percent played almost every day.

Some 53.9 percent spent one to two hours a day playing online games, 2.3 percent spent more than five hours, and 47.6 percent often played Honor of Kings, the most popular online game among students.

Editor: Peter Thomas