Moonton and Mobile Legends taken over by TikTok developer Bytedance
Chinese tech company and TikTok owner ByteDance has reportedly acquired Shanghai Moonton Technology, the developer and publisher of Mobile Legends Bang Bang. The acquisition, valued at approximately $ 4 billion, was made by Nuverse, ByteDance’s video game division. Well, Bytedance has grown into a successful technology company with the Tik-Tok app.
According to a Reuters source, Moonton’s CEO Yuan Jing has submitted an internal memo that the company will operate as an independent entity from ByteDance when this acquisition is final.
Jing Yuan, Co-Founder and CEO of publisher Moonton, announced on Monday that the company had been acquired by NUVERSE, the gaming division of Chinese technology TikTok and Douyin ByteDance. Yuan said Moonton will work with ByteDance to expand the game market overseas but will remain an independent developer. Yuan will remain in his position as CEO of the company.
Welcoming the acquisition, ByteDance said in a statement: “By working across teams and leveraging the experience and insights gained from its rapid growth, Moonton Nuverse provides the strategic support needed to accelerate the global gaming offering.”
Nuverse is part of Bytedance, which was founded in 2021 and has published titles such as Strike Royale, Eden no Tobira and Arena of Evolution: Red Tides.
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Reuters news agency reported that another Chinese tech giant, Tencent, had also made an offer to acquire Moonton, but that offer was honored by ByteDance last week.
Moonton is known worldwide as the publisher of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang franchise. This mobile MOBA game has seen a rapid surge in popularity in recent years. MLBB has grown into the busiest esports scene, particularly in the Southeast Asia region, and peaked at the M2 event in January this year. The Mobile Legends World Championship was watched live by more than 600,000 people.
Esports Charts recorded the M2 2021 World Championship Grand Final between Burmese Ghouls and Bren Esports and has been viewed more than 3 million times. This great event is also supported by a number of global sponsor brands such as Samsung, Razer, Secretlab and Singtel who have teamed up with the Mobile Legends eSports competition.
Of course, many are waiting for news about the Moonton acquisition process through Bytedance and are beginning to suspect how this will affect the Mobile Legends game Bang Bang. With Bytedance’s success in making TikTok a universal application, it appears that MLBB will continue to innovate to become a prestigious esports title and its already solid reach in the Southeast Asia region, perhaps Central Asia, Europe, America and others, to expand.
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