Alibaba Moves beyond E-Commerce and Into Mobile Gaming

Alibaba Moves beyond E-Commerce and Into Mobile Gaming

Alibaba Moves beyond E-Commerce and Into Mobile Gaming

📅02 February 2014, 12:32

While the e-commerce giant won’t be leaving its roots behind, the Asian mega-marketplace Alibaba is now involving itself in the world of mobile gaming.

The move comes as an effort on Alibaba’s part to maintain a grip on its consumer base, a group which is accessing the site’s services on mobile devices more and more each day. The Chinese company recently released three games through its Mobile Taobao shopping application and its Laiwang smartphone messaging app.

Offering points that can be redeemed as discounts, these games will provide rewards that can be used as real-word discounts. The company plans to release many more games shortly.

Chinese mobile users number in the hundreds of millions and this is a novel strategy to keep them coming back for Alibaba’s services. While the e-commerce giant currently dominates the Chinese market, the constantly changing face of mobile and how users rely on it for daily interactions are proving a unique challenge for companies looking to stay ahead of the competition.

Currently, Tencent Holdings, a mobile gaming and social media company, is Alibaba’s biggest competitor in the market. Unfortunately for Alibaba, Tencent has an ace up its sleeve with the country’s biggest smartphone messaging app, WeChat, which boasts more than 270-million active monthly users. The company may take advantage of its current hold on the mobile market and branch out more deeply into mobile gaming or even begin dealings in e-commerce that could rival that of Alibaba.