New Alibaba platform offers mobile game developers bigger payout
Revenue-sharing move seen as ploy for new platform to win market share from Tencent
Alibaba will give developers the lion's share of the cut from games offered on a mobile platform that will open up a new front in its rivalry with fellow mainland e-commerce giant Tencent.
The revenue-sharing model would see developers keep 70 per cent of sales from their games, with Alibaba getting only 20 per cent, the firm said yesterday. The remainder would be spent on improving education in rural areas.
"If the industry still keeps the 1:9 revenue-sharing model, the abnormal status quo of this industry won't be changed. We have to help to fight for a healthy environment for game development," spokesman Wang Shuai said on Alibaba's Sina Weibo account yesterday, referring to a 10 per cent take for developers now.
Tencent leads the market in online games on the mainland, where it has used its popular instant messaging service WeChat to offer mobile games to its 270 million monthly active users.
"We are unhappy with Tencent's monopoly in this industry, which has ruined its ecosystem," Wang said in comments suggesting Alibaba is keen to lure developers to its platform with the attractive revenue-sharing arrangements.
Liu Chunning, the president of Alibaba Digital Entertainment, said the mobile gaming platform would be linked to AliCloud, Alibaba's cloud computing arm, and Alipay, the group's e-payment affiliate.