Chinese search giant Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) has a strong interest in the mobile game market. The company’s vice president Zhang Dongchen announced during the 9th Global Mobile Game and Channels Conference plans to integrate Duokoo mobile game business with 91 Wireless games.
Baidu takes on mobile game industry
Following the actual integration, Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) will assign staff members to see about mobile game products as well as invest in an unknown sum to support business.
Prior to Baidu’s announcement, there have been numerous rumors of the integration. China Tech News added, “Li Mingyuan, vice president of Baidu, previously revealed via internal emails reported by Chinese media that the 91 Wireless distribution team will combine with the Baidu mobile assistant team and a new Baidu mobile application distribution team will be established. At the same time, 91 Wireless’ game operating business would combine with Duokoo to form a new Baidu mobile game operating team, which is attached to Baidu consumer business group.”
A growing game market
Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)’s latest move in the mobile game market shows that the company is ready to take take this step into a competitive industry. Earlier this week, a report from Pocket Gamer indicated that the Chinese mobile game market grew significantly last year by 156% up to $2.2 billion. Pocket Gamer speculated, “According to a report released by the GMGC and produced using information from various Chinese market intelligence companies – Umeng, TalkingData, App Annie and Analysys – the Chinese mobile game market in 2013 was worth $2.2 billion (RMB 13.8 billion).”
The only downside is that growth is slowing. During the last quarter in 2013, the numbers were down by 27% which is comparable to the 37% growth during third quarter. With that said, the growth rate still remains strong compared to other countries in the developed world. This year, we can expect to see the size of the global market to grow to $3.8 billion at 97%.
