As the Chinese smartphone market continues to heat up — mobile app trends site Flurry noted last summer that the country is already accounting for a quarter of the entire world’s device install base — it’s not just hardware developers scrambling for attention. Alibaba, China’s closest analogue to Amazon(s amzn), announced that it will pursue the development of a proprietary mobile gaming platform alongside its already-existing messaging and mobile shopping channels. TechCrunch says that a games platform would put the company in direct competition with popular Chinese app distributor Tencent.

While it has been mostly known for its ecommerce offerings, Alibaba likely couldn’t stay away from the ripe mobile games market burgeoning in China. According to Flurry, Chinese smartphone users spent roughly 64 percent of use time in game apps — significantly larger than any country. In addition, nearly two-thirds of time spent on apps in China is done…