A Kakao Talk employee displays a mobile game on a smartphone at the company’s headquarters in Seongam, South Korea. (Photo : Reuters)
South Korea’s mobile messenger and Web portal giant Daum Kakao Corp. has partnered with Korean game developers to delve into China’s highly lucrative mobile gaming market, the company announced on Tuesday.
Daum Kakao, the owner of the hit messaging app Kakao Talk, will help South Korean game developers in publishing their mobile game apps on Chinese platforms like Tencent and Baidu as well as in international platforms such as the Apple Store, the company said in a press release.
"Daum Kakao, which has a vast pool of experts, will spare no effort to find and support competent Korean mobile games and help them make meaningful achievement in China," said Lee Seung-won, head of Daum Kakao's games division in the Chinese market.
"We will spare no effort to help Korean mobile games expand in China through a localization strategy," Lee added.
The company is also set to expand its Beijing office during the first half of the year and eyes 50 additional personnel to work on the development of the new service.
Daum Kakao will be responsible for the production and management of the apps and will cover the publishing costs in China. They are also developing a tool that will allow developers to create mobile games for different platforms.
"Such efforts would help small Korean game developers to focus on the development of mobile games," Lee said.
China's mobile games industry is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. According to market intelligence firm Niko Partners, the Chinese market grew at an impressive rate of 93 percent in 2014, and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 37.6 percent through 2018.
