This year, the Chinese startup ByteDance will win back the market share of mobile games from Tencent. The company has bought up a number of game studios and IP and is ready to release the first titles.
Bloomberg sources report that the ByteDance team already has more than 1,000 developers. And in the spring, the startup will publish its first non-legal games for Chinese and foreign players. As Niko Partners previously stated, ByteDance can compete with Tencent thanks to investments in game development and the audience of other startup projects, including TikTok.
TikTok (known in China as Douyin) is a video application from ByteDance. The number of its users reaches 1 billion. ByteDance plans to advertise its games, including among the audience of the application.
In addition, the startup has a popular Toutiao platform. According to the App Growing Center, 63 out of 100 leading mobile game publishers promote their projects through it. This is a key promotion channel for Chinese publishers as well.
Previously, the ByteDance gaming division advertised its casual hits through TikTok and Toutiao. Now, according to analysts, ByteDance has enough resources to compete for a share of the mobile market and with more hardcore titles. What is this IP and the developers of which studios are working on them, the publication does not report. The startup itself did not give Bloomberg any comments.
Let’s add: Alibaba‘s gaming projects may also shoot in the Asian market this year, according to Niko Partners. Thus, competition in the segment will intensify when newcomers challenge the giants Tencent and NetEase.
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