A division of the Chinese tech giant Alibaba – Alibaba Games – has announced that it will “distribute” mobile games. The company plans to invest 1 billion yuan ($145.3 million) in the development of this direction.
Unfortunately, what exactly the company is going to do is not entirely clear. Investments in distribution may mean: assistance to developers, and the purchase of projects from other players in the market for publication in China, and an increase in marketing budgets for the company’s existing games on the market (for example, War of Angels: Four Heroes), and the development of game categories in mobile stores owned by Alibaba.
A comment can be a hint Xiaoping He (Xiaopeng Ne), president of Alibaba Mobile Business Group, who said that Alibaba, with the help of its subsidiaries, will build “an effective chain of intellectual property rights in the distribution of video games.” UCWeb “will become a point of aggregation of content and entry for traffic, which will play a leading role in the distribution of Alibaba Games assets.”
It can be concluded that UCWeb is becoming a publisher of games projects in which Alibaba will invest its money and strength.
As part of the new direction, Alibaba Games is also creating a “Global Strategic Alliance for the Distribution of Games.” Its goal is to “establish the distribution of mobile game content between China and Russia, Europe, Japan, the Middle East and the United States, as well as to provide users in these countries with the opportunity to evaluate the latest technical innovations in the field of gaming.”
They also promise to “improve traffic distribution by combining traffic on iOS and Android platforms. The company uses big data technologies to accurately distribute traffic and create personalized recommendations for each user.”
What is meant by all this is also unclear. Is Alibaba planning to simplify the process of transferring the rights to publish games between alliance members or to offer a new distribution platform?
The Russian has already joined the alliance Mail.ru Group, as well as TFJoy, Efun and ONEMT. Alibaba invites other companies to participate in the alliance.
The editorial board has already sent requests to Alibaba and Mail.ru Group with a request to specify the news occasion.
Update: a comment came from Mail.ru Group.
Deputy head of the gaming direction Mail.Ru Group
A source: UCWeb