Nasdaq-listed, China-based mobile app publisher SkyMobi is holding its international coming out party at PG Connects next week in Helsinki.
"Most mobile game developers outside China have never heard of us. But we don't mind. We know that our history and incredible growth story will quickly grab developers' interest," says William James Heathershaw, head of international marketing.
SkyMobi is succeeding in the transition from feature phone app distribution, to smartphone mobile app publishing in a big way.
And now it's time for SkyMobi to seek international mobile game developers to access the publisher's wealth of Chinese gamers.
Maopao reach
In its most recent quarterly earning call (transcript here), the company announced it mobile app store, Maopao, is pre-installed in nearly 40% of all Android smartphone sold in China today.
For a total of more than 147 million users, of which 25 million are MAU.
To extend its reach to the Chinese market, the company also partners with more than 70 mobile app distribution channels in China, including leaders Tencent, Baidu, Qihoo, and Wandoujia.
But more strategically, SkyMobi maintains a strong relationship with China's operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom.
Back in the feature phone app distribution days, where SkyMobi was arguably the leader in the space (which led to its investment by Sequoia in 2007 and later IPO in 2009), SkyMobi partnered with the operators for pre-installs, and the operators depended on SkyMobi for bringing the new mobile app ecosystem to its subscribers.
This close partnership continues today.
Going global
"Now, that we have built our Maopao user base and set it on an incredible growth trajectory - it grew 700% over the last year - and have solidified strategic distribution partnerships, we're working with developers, both indie and behemoth, to bring their fantastic casual games to China," shares Heathershaw.
To build excitement for this outreach, SkyMobi has formed the "Indies Only - How about 5 Million Downloads Guaranteed!?" program, which also guarantees $100,000 minimum revenue.
The program will formally be launched at PGConnects on June 16.
You can pre-apply here.
Interested to work with SkyMobi? Meet with them at PG Connects, or email them directly at developers@sky-mobi.com
