Daum Kakao eyes China mobile game market

Daum Kakao, a leading Web portal and mobile messenger service in South Korea, said Tuesday it would make a foray into the Chinese mobile game publishing market.

Established in 2012, Daum Kakao’s mobile platform, Kakao Game, has published more than 600 games developed by 300 game companies, becoming one of the largest mobile game platforms in Korea.

Some of the mega-hit mobile games launched through Kakao Game include puzzle game “Anipang” and “Cookie Run,” which features a gingerbread man running to escape from an oven.

Aiming to publish the first mobile game in China in the first half of this year, the company said it would establish a task force consisting of around 50 employees from the firm’s Chinese branch and the Seoul office, no later than March.

“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 for China.

In line with the efforts to make a foray into the Chinese mobile game market, the Internet giant plans to help Korean game developers publish their games on the most popular mobile app markets in China, including Apple’s Appstore, 360, Tencent and Baidu.

In order to match the tastes of Chinese mobile users, the company will set up two publishing divisions ― each in Korea and China ― to reduce the time and cost spent on product localization.

“Such efforts would help small Korean game developers to focus on the development of mobile games,” Lee said.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)