Rumor has it that Qihoo 360 just secretly acquired China’s southern Shenzhen-based mobile game developer and distributing platform iDreamSky for tens of million dollars. The move – if true – could be deemed as Qihoo’s continuos efforts in ramping up monetization on mobile end.
Qihoo’s move was echoed by Sogou CEO Mr. Wang Xiaochuang’s latest speech after the third biggest Chinese search engine posted US$ 41 million in revenue. Mr. Wang claimed that mobile gaming might be the only viable monetization method in mobile sector in the recent two years while mobile search still has to wait for couple more years before it’s profitable.
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iDreamsky has a very powerful line-up of game titles including some of the most popular games on the planet like the Angry Birds series, Fruit Ninja series, Jetpack Joyride, Great Little War Game, Bouncy Mouse, Fragger, Gravity Guy. The acquisition certainly could give Qihoo full access to those top-notch games. Qihoo could also help distribute them to a greater coverage of users via it’s own channels.
Qihoo has exerted big pressure on Baidu, business-wise and stake-wise. The latter’s latest financial didn’t come out good while its stock fell down a bit in today’s trading. Qihoo will be continually challenge Baidu on PC-based search – already did and gained about 10% of market share on Baidu’s lost – and now with the new mobile game initiative Qihoo has the chance to outpace Baidu in mobile revenue. Badu claimed to invested huge into mobile but hasn’t yield too much revenue yet.
Qihoo hasn’t replied to an email reaching out to the company for comment on the rumored acquisition yet.
Image credit: idreamsky.com