Alibaba spends $145M to form distribution network for mobile games

Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba will invest $145 million to establish a global distribution network for mobile games.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, company president Simon Shi revealed the firm will look to bridge the global distribution gap through the formation of a "Global Strategic Alliance of Game Distribution."

The newly christened alliance has been created with the help of partners including Russian internet giant Mail.ru Group, and publishers TFJoy, Efun, and ONEMT.

If all goes according to plan the network should level the distribution playing field on an international scale,  helping emerging mobile markets -- which Shi feels are currently being unfairly overlooked -- reach their potential. 

"The development of the mobile game markets in the Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia is uneven," continued Shi. "European, American, Japanese and South Korean markets are already considered mature markets, while the Middle East in the past two years is seeing rapid development. 

"Latin America and Southeast Asia as emerging markets also show very high potential in the mobile games consumption, while we're doing very well in other emerging markets like India and Indonesia already."

Alibaba says it achieve that goal by using "big data" to maximise the value of those game properties distributed through its network.