ByteDance’s gaming chief sets out global ambition to rival Nintendo and Blizzard after US$4 billion Moonton deal
- The operator of hit app TikTok has been expanding into the gaming industry by hiring more than 3,000 people for its gaming unit within just three years
- Yan Shou said that there is now a golden opportunity for Chinese gaming companies to further expand into the global market
ByteDance’s gaming chief, Yan Shou, said that the Beijing-based tech giant needs to focus on becoming a global gaming company to rival international gaming powerhouses such as Nintendo and Activision Blizzard, according to an internal speech, a copy of which was obtained by the South China Morning Post.
The operator of hit app TikTok, which has a vast user base with 3 billion global installs, has been expanding into the gaming industry by hiring more than 3,000 people for its gaming unit within just three years, many of whom now work for ByteDance’s developer studio Nuverse.
“Nuverse’s business is new. What you may not know is that most of the Nuverse business is global. Gross revenue outside of China accounts for nearly 80 per cent of our business,” said Yan in his speech.
A person with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed the contents of the speech, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
The Beijing-based company’s ambition to conquer the video games industry parallels a move by many other tech giants to push into the lucrative segment, a market now estimated to be worth US$175.8 billion. US entertainment titan Netflix is planning to offer video games on its platform next year, according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday. Amazon has also recently established Amazon Games in the hope of providing self-developed games to its users.
