Korean mobile game maker 4:33 Creative Lab attracts big investment from Tencent and Line

Korean mobile game designer 4:33 Creative Lab has attracted fresh investment from Tencent and Line Corp, according to BeSUCCESS. The dollar amount was undisclosed, but BeSUCCESS puts the figure north of US$100 million.

Tencent, Line, and Korea Investment Partners jointly set up a consortium in which Tencent contributed about US$110 million, according to Business Korea. After the investment made through the consortium, Tencent’s stake in 4:33 Creative Lab comes out to 25 percent. 4:33 Creative Labs says it will disclose more details about the consortium later this year.

Tencent makes China’s most popular messaging app WeChat, which now has 468 million monthly active users, according to a company earnings report released yesterday. Line’s popular messaging app by the same name has 170 million. Both use use in-app social games to engage and monetize users, although Line has been far more effective than Tencent in this respect.

Tencent’s previous gaming investments into Korean firms include Netmarble Games (US$512 million), Carbon Eyed (US$91.4 million), and PATI Games (US$18.3 million).

4:33 Creative Labs’ biggest games include Arrow and Blade, both of which are available on Kakao’s mobile gaming network. Kakao runs South Korea’s most popular messaging app KakaoTalk along with the integrated gaming platform launched last year. It looks like Kakao won’t be getting any more love from the game dev in the future.

4:33 Creative Labs plans to go public in its home country sometime next year.

See: Trends in mobile gaming in Asia, according to industry expert Dr. Serkan Toto