Dots, The Addictive Smartphone Game, Is Tackling The Biggest Mobile Market In The World Thanks To Alibaba

Dots, the mobile game that hit 1 million downloads within one week of launching, is tackling its biggest market yet: China.

China has the largest mobile market, but it represents just 1% of mobile gaming Dots' install base.

Enter a partnership between Dots and IPO-bound Alibaba, the massive ecommerce company in China. That makes Dots the first game from the U.S. to launch on Alibaba's mobile gaming platform, which launched earlier this year.

"We knew we wanted to enter China with a partner, and we had been approached by some of the large Chinese internet companies," Dots CEO Paul Murphy told Business Insider via email. "We received great council and a few contacts from Li Ruigang and his team (whose China Media Capital is an investor in Betaworks). Draco Li (our lead engineer on the project) and I visited Beijing, met a handful of partner options, and left with an Alibaba deal."

China represents a huge opportunity for Dots. That's because China's mobile gaming market is expected to equal or surpass the U.S. in gross sales, generating more than $3 billion.

When Dots first launched in the U.S., it quickly soared up the iTunes App Store charts. Within one week of launching, Dots hit 1 million downloads.