It's a long way from Tallinn to Beijing, but Estonian mobile payments outfit Fortumo is very active in the Chinese app ecosystem.

For one thing, it's the only western payment company which has partnerships with all three major Chinese mobile operators.

Of course, it also has coverage in more than 80 other countries globally, and that was the experience it drew on when it held one of its developer days to educate Chinese developers about the opportunities of releasing their games and apps internationally.

We caught up with Fortumo's head of developer programs Martti Mustila, who organised the event, to find out why it was holding them, what advice it was providing, as well as what it's like operating a mobile payments service in China.

Pocket Gamer: Fortumo is a payments company so why did you decide to give more general advice, and why specifically to Chinese developers?

Martti Mustila: China is the biggest mobile market in the world but it is also isolated in terms of language and culture. We've seen from our own experience working with Chinese developers that it's more difficult for them to break out into other markets than for developers from countries like Russia or India.

As Fortumo is offering payments in 80 countries, we naturally have a wealth of information from these markets. We feel that it is critical to share this information with Chinese developers so that they can make right decisions regarding payment solutions and how to best access these markets.

Bringing together developers who have already achieved success in overseas markets and getting them to share their experience - not just on monetization but other topics as well - is beneficial to everyone in the long run.

Considering many western developers want to get into China, why do you think there's a big opportunity for Chinese developers to be successful internationally? Shouldn't they just focus on their local market?

Although China is the biggest mobile gaming market in the world, publishing games in China can be challenging also for local mid-size developers.

The market is dominated by big players like Tencent, Sina, Sohu and at the same time it is very fragmented with hundreds of app stores and payment modes. In order to get needed visibility Chinese game developers need good connections and also need to pay a sizeable amount of money for the channels. Overseas markets offer a great opportunity for extra revenue for Chinese developers.

Talking about emerging markets specifically, Chinese developers have a better understanding in some cases about those mobile ecosystem than western developers. They are already used to a fragmented app economy, lower hardware specifications etc.

Many Chinese mobile games are themed around local culture, such as Three Kingdoms etc. Do you think Chinese developers need to become more imaginative to attract western audiences?

In some cases more focus on localization or 'culturalization' is needed, as overseas audiences are not necessary aware of Chinese history, like the Three Kingdoms period. On the other hand, Chinese and Asian culture in general seems mysterious to most western audiences so this is something that can be beneficial as well.

Something that Chinese developers definitely need to put more effort into is the design and graphics of games as they often do not look that great compared to western apps.

What do you think are the key mistakes Chinese developers are making, and what are your key pieces of advice for them?

Most Chinese developers want to go after established markets - North America and Europe. What they fail to realize is that in these markets they will face competition from local developers who have more experience than they do. Furthermore, because everyone is focusing on these markets, user acquisition is becoming more expensive than ever.

We suggest to Chinese developers to start from emerging markets because the competition is lower and ARPPU often even higher. Advice for developers in these markets is rather universal - apps needs to be localized and translated; Android distribution goes beyond Google Play; pricing needs to match the market reality; suitable payment methods need to be chosen.

Will your Fortumo Expand program itself expand, perhaps even working as an agency and helping Chinese developers to find publishers or distribution in the west?

Actually we are already doing this for developers who have joined Fortumo Expand - often times they do not have any contacts in western markets for publishing so we put them in touch with companies that we work with and know are trustworthy.

As a payments company, what's your view on the Chinese mobile payment sector, which on Android seems to be as fragmented as the Android distribution system?

Integration of payments should be as easy as possible for developers. In China, historically each app store in China has had its own payment solution/billing SDK, which has been very painful to developers.

Now we are at least seeing some app stores work together to create more unified billing solutions. However, because of the size of the market, it will still remain fragmented for a long time.

What's it like working in the Chinese mobile payment market, especially given the power of local companies such as Alipay?

We are in a pretty unique position in China because we're the only western payment company who has partnerships with all three mobile operators in the country. With local payment providers western developers still need to do an additional integration and sign additional contracts to get their games launched.

But with us, if the developer has already done the mobile payment integration for 80 other countries, they just need to switch the country on from their Fortumo Dashboard.

You can find out more about Fortumo Expand and the company's other service via its website.