While TenCent may not be a huge name in the United States, it’s a $72 billion dollar chat and networking giant in China that makes a major part of its revenue from games. Tencent’s WeChat platform has grown to 400 million users in two years, and the company has now started testing a mobile gaming platform to be used on WeChat.
The platform’s incredible popularity in China has made it an appealing target for developers looking to get their game to a large audience. Chat has been a major driver of game distribution in South Korea through that country’s KakaoTalk app, which publishes 15 of the top highest-grossing Android apps. Line has had similar success in Japan.
Tencet feels WeChat has potential to move beyond the China market, and the company has good reason to think that way – the app already has 70 million users outside of China. With TenCent looking to expand the app to many countries, its popularity may explode in the near future. The first game being tested on the platform is WE-LINK by a Tencent team, and 10 more games are slated to see release on the platform later this year.
Source: TechCrunch
