By Yoon Ja-young
SK Telecom has signed an agreement with China Mobile in an effort to advance into the mobile game and machine to machine (M2M) businesses.
The signing was held in Nanjing, China, Friday, SK officials said Sunday.
The country’s telecommunication kingpin announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China Mobile Jiangsu, a branch of China Mobile that is responsible for the company’s games, Friday. China Mobile is the country’s biggest telecommunication company.
The two firms will be exchanging mobile game content and strengthening technological cooperation, which includes enabling the partly paid game system, currently actively implimented at SK Telecom’s application shop T Store, at platforms of China Mobile. Partly paid games are free, but users can purchase virtual items in the game that helps them play.
“With the aim to boost high quality and high specification games in both countries, SK Telecom and China Mobile Jiangsu agreed to exchange advanced mobile games content and upgrade games-related platforms to enable purchases of cash items,” a representative for SK Telecom said.
Viatech, SK Telecom’s Chinese subsidiary, will be in charge of registering game related content at China Mobile.
The agreement will open doors for Korean mobile game developers to directly reach the Chinese market, currently focused on low specification games for feature phones and forecasted to witness a rapid growth in Android smartphone games. China Mobile is expecting SK Telecom to supply popular, high quality Android games at its T Store to China Mobile after customizing them to meet Chinese customers’ needs.
In the M2M sector, which refers to futuristic technologies that enable both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices anytime, anywhere, SK Telecom plans to first provide diverse M2M technology-based sensing networks as well as U-GW (Universal Gateway), which connects broadband and mobile telecommunications networks.
“The MOU will create valuable opportunities for competitive Korean content providers to enter the Chinese market in full swing. SK Telecom will further strengthen its collaborative relationship with China Mobile in mobile games and M2M businesses to provide innovative services to its customers,” said Oh Se-hyun, in charge of SK Telecom’s business in China.