The9 Ltd and three investors will set up a US$100 million fund to invest in the mobile Internet market in a bid to copy Apple's online store business model.

The9 and the three investors - ChinaRock Capital Management, Chengwei Ventures, and China Renaissance K2 - will create the Fund 9 to invest in Chinese and overseas developers of mobile applications and platforms, Chris Shen, who is in charge of The9's wireless business, said yesterday.

"It's a war to attract competitive mobile game app developers in China," said Wang Yuquan, Frost Sullivan's chief consultant. "It's a new era for gaming with the convergence between mobility and social functions."

The fund follows several Chinese firms, from telecommunications carriers, device makers to game firms, in tapping the booming mobile Internet market in China. China Mobile, China Unicom, Nokia, Motorola, Shanda and Tencent have all opened online app stores or developed mobile apps.

Nasdaq-listed The9 also said it will launch OpenFeint, the world's most popular social mobile game platform, in China, the No. 1 mobile Internet market globally.

The Chinese version of OpenFeint will allow users to play multi-player games with friends through phones and other mobile devices. From this month to February, the OpenFeint platform, with more than 3,800 games and more than 50 million players worldwide, will be tested for use on the Android system in China, and OpenFeint for the iPhone and iPad will be ready in the first half of 2011.

Shanghai-based The9, an online game firm, has signed a five-year license with OpenFeint.

OpenFeint is "Facebook plus XBox" on mobile phones which have great potential in China, The9 said.

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