Clash Royale is a freemium mobile strategy video game developed and published by Supercell. (Photo : YouTube/ GAMINGwithMOLT)
Weeks after buying Finnish company Supercell Oy from Softbank Group, Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has begun offering the "Clash Royale" mobile game in China via its QQ and WeChat messaging platforms.
The announcement came last week, allowing subscribers in China to download the said mobile game.
According to The Wall Street Journal, "the move highlights the rapid speed at which the two companies are collaborating to bring Supercell's highest-grossing mobile offerings, including 'Clash of Clans,' to the hundreds of millions of people in China who regularly use Tencent's social networks."
This brings great revenue opportunity for Supercell in return, analysts said.
Peter Warman, chief executive at market research firm Newzoo, said that Supercell's revenue could jump by as much as $1 billion, thanks to its partnership with Tencent.
"In China, nobody has the power that Tencent has when it comes to bringing users to games," Warman told the WSJ.
Tencent is undoubtedly in the best position to boost Supercell's revenue stream in China, the world's largest mobile game market.
According to the WSJ, Supercell "has fared relatively well in China" while working alongside Kunlun. The deal with Tencent will, however, catapult the Finnish company into a larger revenue-generating platform, thanks to China's large user base.
"Tencent's WeChat and QQ are two of the most frequently used apps in China," wrote the WSJ. "On top of their core messaging features, the apps come with mobile payment functions that let users pay for games and other online services. As of March, WeChat had 762 million monthly active users, while QQ's mobile app had 658 million."
Supercell had echoed this huge revenue potential in an earlier statement.
"[Tencent has] around 300 million unique users playing games on their platforms," Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen wrote in a post. "What this means for us is that together with Tencent, we can bring our games to so many more players. Also, their social platforms offer many new possibilities for our games, particularly for social play."
