By Chris Chang, posted Jul 21, 2010 at 2:30 PM, 842 views,

Sony PSPs Never, Ever Officially Hit the Chinese Market

The Chinese PSP gamers are surprised to know about this. Apparently, the PSPs we see in China are all smuggled goods, they are secretly smuggled into the country, and sold to millions of Chinese gamers. This action has been carried out for many years, since the PSP 1000 was introduced to the World.

So, you may ask, how PSPs are smuggled into China? Well, we have some important stuff to explain to you first.

1. All PSPs selling in China are smuggled goods.

This is first discovered by a Chinese customer, Mr Liu. He could not believe the PSPs sold in the domestic market are mostly smuggled goods. At first, Liu bought a PSP 3000 for his daughter as a birthday present. He later compared the prices by visiting the Sony Retail Store in Beijing, to check out what’s the official price tag. However, he could not find any PSPs in the retail store, not even an accessory. After questioning the staff in the retail store, he was told that Sony’s PSP never officially hit the Chinese market, the PSPs which are selling out there are all smuggled in “secret” methods. So, the PSP which Liu bought is also a smuggled device.

A reporter from Xinhua News Agency has stated that the PSPs in China are all smuggled goods, after visiting the gadget city of Beijing. A Chinese PSP dealer has told the reporter that customers could not purchase a “licensed” PSP in China.

From December 12, 2004 till now, Sony has developed PSP1000, PSP2000, PSP3000 and PSP GO serial products, which were on sale in dozens of countries and territories around the world. However, they never hit the Chinese market. Then, the reporter has managed to get some answers from the Senior Manager of the China’s Sony Corporation PR department, the Sony PSP is not for sale in China.

2. How PSPs Are Smuggled Into China

According to Sony’s financial report, from 2004 to the first quarter of 2010, Sony has sold more than 50 million PSP units worldwide. Due to “illegal” smuggling channels, the total amount of PSPs smuggled into the Chinese market is unknown. A Chinese netizen then exposes that half of the sales go to the Chinese market, this is unconfirmed yet. In China, we can see that the PSP is available for sale everywhere, and it’s the most discussed gaming console in the Chinese market, so it turns out to be a question on how the Chinese dealers smuggled such a great amount of PSPs into the country?

Well, looks like there’s an easy way. It all starts from the Hong Kong retail store. The local venders will travel to Hong Kong, where the PSP is legally sold through Sony’s Hong Kong branch. The portables are then taken back to Beijing and other major cities of China to be sold. Beijing acts as a “distribution sector”, while most of the smuggled goods would reached Shenzhen first. There are even some dealers saying that they will send some assistants to travel to Hong Kong twice per month, and each of them will “secretly” bring five PSPs back to China, without getting captured by the customs.

In recent years, the customs officials in Dalian City, Xiamen City and Shenzhen have seized smuggled PSPs. The Customs Publicity Division of Shenzhen has provided a data showing that there are two cases of smuggling gaming consoles in the year 2010, up to 205 units are captured. Regarding the smuggling methods, Xinhua News reporter has got some info from the customs,

*The above methods are carried out from Hong Kong, and the smugglers’ destination is Shenzhen.*

What’s more, there are some dealers claiming that their PSPs are imported from the China OEM factories…

3. How the Chinese government and Sony look on this matter

As the manufacturer of PSP, Sony turns a blind eye to the rampancy of the smuggled goods in China. Meanwhile, Chinese regulators have winked at the same situation for years. You have to know that the reason why Sony’s PSP is not legally available in China is because the local government has yet to approve the sale of the device, due to a regulation regarding the sales of gaming consoles in the country. In a notice issued in June 2000, the Chinese government banned the production, distribution and imports of game consoles and accessories oriented to the domestic market. The notice is still effective now. So, with this ridiculous policy restriction, it blocks the “licensed” PSP to enter China. However, it could not explain the rampancy of smuggled goods in the country. Why has not Sony taken any measures to prevent that from happening?

Actually, Sony has taken some actions way back in 2006. Sony has worked together with the China customs to “ban” the smuggled PSPs in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and maybe more places, according to Xinhua News reporter. This reporter could not find out any more actions carried out by Sony. Finally, the smuggled PSP end up being completely legal because the Chinese governing body does not crack down on them for the sole purpose that they aren’t a licensed seller. The best way to think of them is like a flee-market and not a licensed retailer. As a result, we are seeing lots of “licensed” PSP available for sale in the gadget markets and few customers know that these devices are actually smuggled goods.

My Conclusion

Personally, I’m not fond of PSP. However, I have seen plenty of PSPs being put up for sale in the gadget stores of China. I think there’s an average of 3 customers buying PSP every minute. As far as I know, the Chinese youngsters often buy the PSP through some “secret” ways, to obtain a cheaper price. I have approached the local vendors to find out what’s really going on with the cheaper price, and I was told that those cheaper ones are ‘refurbished’ PSPs which failed to pass quality control in the factory plants because of minor damage, and these “problematic” devices would be smuggled outside the factory, ready to let the local vendors to pick up. These type of consoles would be added with modification to act as a perfectly alright device. And one more thing, customers can request the vendors to add piracy functionality to their PSP while purchasing.

Source: Sina