CHINA TOPIX

11/24/2024 09:47:02 am

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Tencent To Buy US$500-Million Stake in South Korea's CJ Games

China's Internet giant Tencent Holdings Limited has recently announced plans to buy 28 percent stake in South Korea's online and mobile games developer CJ Games Corp.

The acquisition is priced at US$500 million and will make Tencent, headquartered in Shenzhen, the third-largest shareholder of the South Korean company.

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The partnership will see CJ Games empowering its growth in the international mobile games arena, banking on Tencent's strong game publishing capabilities in China.

It will also further expand Tencent's online and mobile gaming business in China and allow it to grow its presence around the world.

Tencent President Martin Lau said the strategic partnership of the two companies will bring more high quality, interesting, and enjoyable mobile gaming experience to users.

The stake purchase is part of Tencent's growing presence in the gaming industry not just in China but around the world. In the fourth quarter of last year, Tencent reported that online games contributed almost 50 percent of its total revenue of 17 billion yuan (USD2.73bn).

Tencent has already stamped its presence in China's rapidly growing mobile gaming market through its QQ and WeChat applications. The two apps produced mobile games revenue of more than 600 million yuan in the last quarter of 2013.

China's rapidly growing online gaming industry has been the target of global online game operators. Last year, online game operators in China registered total revenue of 82.1 billion yuan, or around US$14 billion.

The figure is expected to even increase by US$16 billion this year, with Tencent forecast to take the biggest share of the country's gaming industry.

Based on the data released during the China Games Industry Annual Conference, nearly US$8 billion of last year's total Chinese gaming revenue came from online client-based PC games. Another US$2 billion was generated by browser games while mobile titles garnered US$1.79 billion. Social gaming also generated around US$1 billion.

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