Kongzhong Corporation is a Chinese company that provides value-added services including video games via the Internet and various mobile networks. These include or included mobile web content,[1] such as mobile message boards, WAP websites, and electronic books;[4] ring tones;[5]ringback tones;[6]mobile games;[1] and Internet games.[4]
Games
While the company was making subscription-based mobile games as early as 2005,[6] its mobile games business expanded with the 2012 acquisition of Noumena[4] AKA Nuomina, developer of a "cross-platform mobile game engine" that allows games to be played on Android, iOS, and with HTML5.[7] Some early mobile games were coded in Java.[7]
A pioneer mobile value-added services provider, the company's first such products were for WAP. Kongzhong has, as of 2007, a partnership with Opera Software that allows a mobile version of the latter company's Opera browser to be downloaded in China.[9] Kongzhong may have patterned its early mobile business model off of Japanese companies[10] that successfully provided WAP-based value-added services to a domestic audience in the 1990s and early 2000s. Between 2005 and 2007 the company was being described as a provider of 2.5G mobile value-added services.[11]
History
Founded by serial entrepreneur Nick Yang in 2002 with venture capital funding, he may no longer be able to play an active role.[2]
In 2013 the company participated in an effort to locate a Flying TigersP-40 thought to have crash landed in a Yunnan province lake in 1942.[12]
Lawsuits
A securities class-action lawsuit against Kongzhong Corporation was settled for $3.5 million in 2006.[13] The complaint stemmed from a perception that prior to the issuance of an IPO, the company likely provided a misleading prospectus.[13]
^John Liu. "KongZhong, Hurray! report lower fourth quarter net." China Daily. China Daily. 2006. HighBeam Research. 23 May. 2014
^ abRodney Wai-chi Wai-chi Chu; Leopoldina Fortunati; Pui-Lam Law; Shanhua Yang (2012). Mobile Communication and Greater China. Routledge Research on Social Work, Social Policy and Social Development in Greater China. Routledge. p. 91. ISBN9781136325038.
^ ab"KONGZHONG & NVIDIA Cooperate to Create PC+ Mobile Games Feast." China Weekly News. NewsRX. 2012. HighBeam Research. 22 May. 2014
^For 2005 mention, see "Wireless Channel: China's KongZhong Inks Pact with Greatdreams." Wireless News. Close-Up Media, Inc. 2005. HighBeam Research. "KongZhong, a provider of advanced second generation (2.5G) wireless value-added services in China..." 22 May. 2014
For 2007 mention, see Paul Cheung, CFA. "Kongzhong Upgraded to Buy - Analyst Blog." Zacks Investment Research - Analyst Blog. Zacks Investment Research. 2006. HighBeam Research. "...Kongzhong's leading position on 2.5G platform in China will help the company make full use of the wireless value-added service opportunity in the future. " 22 May. 2014
^"KongZhong Launches Project to Salvage Flying Tigers Fighter Aircraft in China." China Weekly News. NewsRX. 2013. HighBeam Research. 22 May. 2014
