Chinese internet giant Tencent to construct eSport industrial park

Chinese internet commerce giant Tencent, which acquired Finnish mobile games developer Supercell for $8.6 billion last year (see previous  reports) has announced a new eSports project to construct an “eSports-themed industrial park” in the city of Wuhu, China.

The park will include a “gaming university, cultural and creative park, animation industry park, creative neighbourhood, Tencent cloud technology business community, and a Tencent cloud data centre.”

There is also the possibility that Tencent may develop an on-site theme park and facilities to hold national eSports tournaments once construction is complete in Wuhu.

The Wuhu project is part of ambitious Tencent plans that include an Honor of Kings theme park in Chengdu City, where the game’s developer is located. Honor of Kings is extremely popular with Chinese video gamers, and boasts over 50 million active users, according to independent studies. Revenues are around $435 million a month from the game.

The latest moves by Tencent are reportedly part of a strategic plan to expand the group’s eSports footprint; Tencent’s online gaming division reportedly delivers revenue of RMB70.84 billion and at last report revenues were up 25 percent year-on-year. The division provides almost half of the group’s annual revenue.

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