Chinese mobile game publisher and tools provider CocoaChina is expanding into North America.

The outfit, which also operates under the Chukong and Punchbox labels, has hired AOL, Netscape, and Motorola veteran Kai Zhao as its veep of engineering.

He will lead the technical direction as the company builds strategic partnerships with key developers and looks to get US developers using its Cocos2d-x game engine.

Two-way street

"Our primary objective in 2013 is to improve development infrastructure, user engagement and monetisation for mobile games published in the US market and beyond, and Kai's technical expertise will drive us in the right direction," said Lei Zhang, CocoaChina's general manager in the US.

"We've established a strong developer community overseas and built key partnership with several top developers. This year we plan to continue to build out and support the large community here in the west as well."

As well as its international move, CocoaChina helps publishers and developers enter the Chinese market. It recently signed such deals with US company Z2Live and Korean giant Nexon.