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While it’s generally known that timing can make or break a business venture, it may have taken Alibaba nearly six years to learn this lesson.
For a long time, many people – me included – were a bit perplexed by the Chinese ecommerce giant’s foray into games. The company started pursuing the industry in 2014. But despite having an efficient source of traffic, what its games business amounted to was unexceptional compared to its peers.
Alibaba focused primarily on game distribution, an area already dominated by Tencent and a handful of other companies.
Last year, Alibaba’s gaming arm published a self-developed title, Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition, that became an instant bestseller. This provided a window that the company had been waiting for. This time around, it didn’t drag its feet, rolling out a second game with the same theme and upgrading its gaming unit in September.
While Alibaba is not necessarily going head-to-head against the incumbents, China’s mobile gaming space is bound to get more interesting with it in the mix. We’ll no doubt be keeping a close eye on its next move.
— Nicole Jao, journalist at Tech in Asia
TOP STORIES THIS WEEK
1️. Alibaba takes another shot at online games: genius move or a bad call?
After years of unfruitful attempts, Alibaba finally scores a win in the gaming market with two Three Kingdoms-themed titles.
2️. Microsoft strikes a $100m investment deal with Bukalapak
The development comes after Google’s reported injection into Bukalapak rival Tokopedia late last month.
3️. Is Singapore medtech firm Biofourmis’ near-unicorn status warranted?
We dig deeper into the inner workings of Biofourmis whose valuation quadrupled to a reported US$800 million from 2019.
4. SoftBank loses COO, four partners from its $100b Vision Fund
Current Vision Fund chief of staff Neil Hadley will be taking on the role of chief operating officer after Ruwan Weerasekera’s retirement.
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