Rovio Entertainment Ltd, the maker of Angry Birds, outlined a series of China-related business plans on Thursday, including opening activity parks and retail outlets, as part of its quest to get a billion fans for its popular mobile game.
Its commitment to the country has also prompted the Finnish company to "incorporate quite a few Chinese elements" in its new game, Amazing Alex, to be released in July, said Peter Vesterbacka, the company's chief marketing officer.
Two Angry Birds activity parks will be launched in the coming autumn.
One will be in Haining in Zhejiang province, and the other, smaller in scale, will be in the Sino-Finnish Center at Tongji University in Shanghai.
The park in Haining is being financed by the city's government, while the park in Shanghai is being financed by the local government of the Finnish city of Espoo, where Rovio is headquartered.
"This is just the first step for us. We are planning to bring hundreds of Angry Birds activity parks to cities throughout China to encourage healthy, active and educational play," said Henri Holm, senior vice-president of Rovio Asia.
Meanwhile, the first Angry Birds retail outlet outside Finland will be open in Shanghai on July 3, followed by another one in Beijing a week later.
Vesterbacka said that the company plans to open outlets in 100 cities across the nation over the next 12 months.
The brick-and-mortar stores are the latest attempts to engage Chinese users after introducing Angry Birds spinoffs through e-channels on Tmall.com, China's largest business-to-customer site in February.
online revenue has been "encouraging", Vesterbacka said, without giving figures. By introducing physical stores, Rovio wants to show its appreciation to Chinese fans by serving them even better locally, he added.
