SNAIL Game plans an initial public offering in Hong Kong next year to raise around 1.5 billion yuan (US$238 million) to expand in overseas markets and research mobile games.

The Suzhou-based game vendor will develop 20 mobile games by the end of this year and expect mobile game revenue to contribute 20 to 30 percent of its total revenue, Shi Hai, Snail Game's president, said yesterday at ChinaJoy in Shanghai.

At present, Snail Game's main income comes from personal computer-based games such as Age of Wushu (Jiu Yin Zhen Jing) and Black Gold.

The company has set up a team of 300 people to work on mobile game development, which is expected to contribute 10 million yuan or more each month, Shi said.

It will also use money raised through the IPO to expand in overseas markets.

By the end of June, China's game industry revenue had reached 33.9 billion yuan, a 36.4 percent growth year on year. The mobile game industry revenue more than doubled from a year ago to hit 2.53 billion yuan, International Data Corp said.