Angry Birds maker Rovio opens online store in China

PanARMENIAN.Net - Rovio Entertainment Ltd, the maker of the popular game called Angry Birds, opened a store on Tmall.com, China's biggest business-to-consumer website, on Feb 2.

It is the first game developer to do so on Tmall, where companies, such as Samsung Electronics Co and Nike Inc, sell to customers.

The Finnish game developer is attempting to further cash in on the Chinese market by selling authentic Angry Birds products rather than simply launching games.

"We want more people to know that we are not only making games, but also a full suite of entertainment services including retail, animated short videos and comics," said Rovio in an e-mail to China Daily.

The launch of its online store is one of the company's attempts to expand from a game developer to a Disney-like entertainment company.

With its own online store, Rovio aims to counter the large number of counterfeit Angry Birds spinoffs in China.