ByteDance brushes off early failures with new partnerships to battle Tencent in core games market
- The global market for video games is forecast to reach US$159.3 billion this year, with mobile games making up about half of that
- Of all of its gaming moves, ByteDance’s decision to partner with Kaiser has created the most buzz
ByteDance’s aggressive move to secure big-name franchises comes after its first efforts – Art of War: Infinity Evolution and JJ Street Basket – have struggled to live up to expectations. But with the new deals, which include Kaiser’s Naruto: Slugfest and CMGE’s One Piece: The Voyage, ByteDance is armed with core titles that could accelerate its expansion into gaming.
Analysts expect ByteDance’s battle with Tencent, China’s top gaming company and the world’s largest by revenue, to ratchet up in the coming months. TF Securities analyst Wen Hao said their business models and growth strategies are similar in that they both use games to monetise the massive traffic on their platforms.
“The path ByteDance is on now is the same one Tencent took when it first got into the publishing and development of games,” Wen said. “These companies are now fighting for resources from the content providers which hold the rights to big-name franchises.”
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What makes Tencent such a tech goliath?
The global market for video games is forecast to reach US$159.3 billion this year, with mobile games making up about half of that, according to research firm Newzoo. Beijing-based ByteDance wants to tap into that opportunity with its 1.5 billion monthly active users across a family of apps that include TikTok, Douyin and Jinri Toutiao.