TikTok operator ByteDance buys video gaming start-up in move likely to sharpen rivalry with Tencent
- ByteDance operates the popular short video app Douyin, known as TikTok outside China, which competes with Tencent-backed Kuaishou and others
Beijing-based ByteDance has acquired 100 per cent of Shanghai-based mobile game developer Mokun Technology, as the world’s most valuable unicorn makes a further foray into video gaming.
Mokun, founded in 2013, became wholly owned by Beijing Zhaoxi Guangnian Technology recently, a subsidiary of ByteDance, according to public business registration information. Mokun’s executive chairman is currently Zhang Lidong, senior vice-president and legal representative at ByteDance. The Shanghai-based video gaming company was previously owned by 37 Interactive Entertainment, a Shenzhen-listed game developer.
A ByteDance spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter. Last month, ByteDance posted a job opening for a games content operator, based in Beijing, on its official career page.
Mokun has developed a 3-dimensional mobile game with a classical theme of the Three Kingdoms, a period in China’s history when it was divided between the states of Wei, Shu, and Wu. The game was distributed by Tencent Holdings, the world’s largest games publisher by revenue and a keen rival of ByteDance in the short video market.
ByteDance operates the popular short video app Douyin, known as TikTok outside China, which competes with Tencent Holdings-backed Kuaishou and its broader social networking platform. Bytedance and Tencent even filed competing lawsuits against each other last year alleging anti-competitive behaviour and defamation respectively.
