Qihoo, the largest Internet security service in China, will buy new shares issued by Japanese mobile game developer Klab that will represent a 2.56% stake in the latter, according an announcement by Klab. It is expected that Qihoo’d help Klab leverage its huge user base.
Online gaming has been one of the major revenue sources of Qihoo’s. About 36% of the total revenues in Q3 2103 were revenue shares from third-party game providers on Qihoo’s gaming platform. Previously almost all the games on the platform were web games, or browser games. But now mobile gaming is explosive in China and it is believed a considerable number of existing game players will shift to mobile. Also it is expected that the mobile gaming market may be even bigger than the PC-based one.
Zhou Hongyi, CEO of Qihoo, said on the Q3 2103 earnings conference call that he believed Qihoo’s 360 Mobile Assistant, a mobile app management app, had become the largest mobile game distributor in China.
Klab has had presence in China. Klab China was established in late 2012. It now has some 70 employees, according to its website.
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