Shanda Games to expand investment areas: covering Third-party players

Sina Science and technology news Beijing time July 30 morning, Shanda Games (Weibo) said last week that the company may expand its investment fund "18 funds" coverage to achieve the web game and the number of mobile games growth targets. Tan, CEO of Shanda, said in an interview in Friday that the company intended to allow Third-party game developers to gain support from the 18 fund.　　The 18 fund was created in 2007 by Shanda Games, with a scale of 1 billion yuan (about 157 million US dollars), and is currently focused on investing in web games and mobile game developers. The Shanda Network is developing a compact version of some of its most popular games, such as the legendary world, to enhance the attractiveness of these games to casual gamers and smartphone users.　　Shanda Network is also working with Baidu (micro-blog), Renren and other Internet companies to expand its game in China's distribution channels. Tan said: "We want to be China's largest mobile phone game operators and developers.　　Still, Tan said mobile games might not immediately make a "significant contribution" to Shanda's game, and he did not provide specific data. Shanda Gaming shares closed at $3.19 in Friday, down 0.9% from the previous trading day.　　This year, the shares have fallen by 18%, while rivals Tencent and NetEase share shares in the same slump this year.　　Tencent occupies 43.6% per cent of China's online gaming market in the first quarter of this year, according to a report released by Market Research Institute Bocom Analysys on July 16, with NetEase and Shanda playing second and third places respectively in 15% and 10.8%. According to the official website of Shanda Games, as of the end of the third quarter of 2011, 18 funds invested in game developers have reached 700 million dollars.　　Tan says the Shanda game currently holds more than 400 million dollars in cash. Tan said the introduction of new Web games and mobile games would help increase the number of players in the Shanda game, but he did not provide specific data. Shanda Games in June said that in the first quarter of this year, the average number of active users of Shanda games is 19.1 million, of which 4.3 million are paid players. Sail)