Alibaba buys US$120m stake in mobile games firm Kabam

E-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group Holding is looking to heat up the fast-growing mobile games market on the mainland, after making a US$120 million investment in San Francisco-based developer Kabam.

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Kabam chief Kevin Chou says the Alibaba deal will help its games make an impact in China and the rest of Asia. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 10:45am, 1 Aug 2014Updated: 11:20am, 21 Apr 2015

E-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group Holding is looking to heat up the fast-growing mobile games market on the mainland, after making a US$120 million investment in San Francisco-based developer Kabam.

Under the deal, about 10 of Kabam's popular mobile games will be published and distributed across Alibaba gaming platform Taobao Mobile and social messaging application Laiwang over the next three years.

The two companies announced the new investment and their mobile gaming alliance yesterday at ChinaJoy, the annual digital entertainment expo and conference in Shanghai.

"Alibaba is committed to collaborating with great games companies like Kabam to deliver captivating digital entertainment offerings to our users," Patrick Liu Chunning, the president of Alibaba's digital entertainment business unit, said in a statement.

Liu was formerly a senior executive at mainland internet giant Tencent Holdings, which runs the world's largest games business by revenue.

Alibaba's increased outlay on mobile games follows recent expansion initiatives in this market segment by the top mainland games companies, led by Tencent, Perfect World, NetEase and Changyou.com

Tencent accounted for 12 of the top 20 mobile games for Android-based smartphones in China in May, according to the latest monthly rankings by research firms Newzoo and TalkingData. Android devices make up the majority of smartphones in use in China, the world's second-biggest games market behind the United States.