Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba has announced a $120 million (€90 million) strategic investment in mobile gaming company Kabam.
As part of the deal, Alibaba and Kabam will collaborate on publishing and distributing the latter’s free-to-play mobile games, according to the Wall Street Journal newspaper.
The investment by Alibaba, which said earlier this year that it planned to move into the mobile gaming market as part of a new strategy, has valued Kabam at more than $1 billion.
The report added that Kabam’s games are played in more than 150 countries worldwide. Seventy per cent of its users are on mobile platforms, and the company is expected to generate more than $550 million in turnover this year.
“Asia is 50% of the gaming market. It is a strategic priority for us,” Kabam chief operating officer Kent Wakeford said.
Wakeford added that the company spoke to Baidu, Tencent and “every major player in China” before choosing Alibaba as a strategic investor in a “very competitive process”.
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
