SK Telecom joined hands with China’s No. 1 wireless carrier to tap into one of the world’s fastest growing mobile game markets.

ST Telecom and China Mobile’s game business unit signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday in China for cooperation in content, platform and networking technologies.

China’s mobile game market has grown 100 percent annually for the past three years with the number of users reaching 46 million as of the end of last year, according to SK Telecom.

“The Chinese mobile game market currently centers on Java-based feature phones. Beginning this year, smartphone games will see a rapid expansion,” SK Telecom said.

Under the agreement, the two companies will exchange game content. SK Telecom will provide technological assistance to allow paid games on its application store to be used on China Mobile’s platform.

“This agreement will pave the way for Korea’s quality game content to advance into the Chinese market,” said Oh Se-hyun, chief of SK Telecom’s China business.

SK Telecom will also provide its sensing network technologies and the “universal gateway” solution used to connect broadband networks and mobile communications networks.

“We will actively cooperate to help China Mobile grow into a global game player. The two companies will continue to expand cooperation in the machine-to-machine field, too,” he said.

SK Telecom’s China unit will handle the provision of game content on China Mobile’s store and payment service.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)