Alibaba launching mobile game on Taobao app

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's e-commerce giant, will soon launch its first mobile game on one of its smartphone applications, mobile Taobao.

Eyeing the rapidly growing mobile game market in China, Alibaba announced on Wednesday that it was launching a mobile gaming platform to "improve the ecosystem of the entire mobile game industry in China".

In order to catch up with other mobile game distributors in a relatively short time, Alibaba also announced a revenue-sharing model that will enable game developers to boost profits.

Liu Chunning, president of Alibaba Digital Entertainment Group, said the new model will let game developers keep 70 percent of sales revenue, while Alibaba will take 20 percent to cover distribution and marketing costs. The rest will go to charity.

Alibaba said in a news release on Friday that more than 100 mobile game developers have contacted the company to discuss the possibility of cooperation, and about 20 have shown strong interest in distributing their games on Alibaba's platform.