Japan’s DeNa moves into Chinese smartphone game market in deal with Baidu

Japan’s DeNA is bent on being a global powerhouse in social games on mobile platforms. Today, the company announced it will put its Mobage mobile gaming social network on Baidu-Yi smartphones in China.

As the market for games becomes global and more competitive, game companies are spreading out and moving into emerging markets such as China in a race to make social and mobile games ubiquitous.

Baidu, China’s leading internet search provider, has formed an alliance with DeNA’s China subsidiary so that DeNA can offer the Mobage platform and its games on smartphones. Baidu’s official mobile app store, the Yi Store, comes pre-loaded on smartphones and it will have a dedicated section for Mobage.

Users can tap twice to move from the default screen to the Mobage platform on an Android phone. Baidu’s first Yi-based smartphone — manufactured by Dell — went on sale in China on Jan. 13.

The Baidu Yi platform is compatible with Android apps and integrates Baidu’s intelligent search box, cloud services and mobile apps. Baidu has about an 83 percent market share for internet searches in China.

DeNA first launched its Mobage China for Android in July 2011, and on iOS in November 2011. DeNA is a billion-dollar company that has 1,800 games played by 35 million users in Japan.