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ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, just announced its biggest acquisition to date. The Chinese tech company just bought Moonton Technology, the game developer and publisher of the worldwide hit multiplayer online battle “Mobile Legends.”
ByteDance acquired Moonton through its video game subsidiary Nuverse. The decision to purchase the gaming studio is part of the company’s aim to further expand in the video games business.
The value of the deal
As mentioned on Reuters, ByteDance purchased Moonton for $4 billion, and this huge investment is to start growing the company’s video game division and become Tencent, another Chinese company, a competitor in the field.
“Through cross-team collaboration and drawing on lessons and insights from its own rapid growth, Moonton provides the strategic support needed to accelerate Nuverse’s global gaming offerings,” the TikTok owner said in a statement.
While Moonton Technolgy is now owned by ByteDance, it was reported that it will still continue to run independently. This information surfaced after Moonton’s CEO, Yuan Jing’s memo to its employees, stated that the company would operate separately from the Beijing-headquartered tech firm after the acquisition process is completed.
In any case, Moonton was founded by a former employee of Tencent. The company’s most famous and biggest game in Southeast Asia is its “Mobile Legends'' online game. Thus, with the deal, this game title is now under ByteDance and could compete with Tencent’s “League of Legends.”
Taking on Tencent with the acquisition
Moonton’s “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” already has more than 1 billion downloads in November 2020, and this figure apparently gives ByteDance, a game that it can use to take on its rivals in the gaming and esports scene. It is not just Tencent, but the company can now compete with other leading gaming firms now.
“Moonton is definitely ByteDance’s best purchase as yet, whether in terms of scale or reputation in the industry,” South China Morning Post quoted Liao Xuhua, an analyst from Beijing market research firm, as saying. “In the short term, Moonton can very effectively strengthen ByteDance’s gaming business.
