(Yicai Global) Sept. 27 -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. [NYSE:BABA] subsidiary Alibaba Culture & Entertainment Group announced the formal establishment of its game business group, which comprises an open platform business department and an interactive entertainment one, Sina reported yesterday.

Alibaba Culture & Entertainment acquired Guangzhou EJOY Information Technology Co., which was founded by businessmen including former NetEase Inc. [NASDAQ:NTES] Chief Operating Officer Zhan Zhonghui, and merged it with the newly-formed game business group on the same day.

The game business group has two departments, and Zhan will head the interactive entertainment one, while Shi Cangjian will lead the open platform one, Alibaba Culture & Entertainment Chief Executive Yu Yongfu said in an internal e-mail to employees.

Alibaba Culture & Entertainment's buyout of EJOY as well as the establishment of the game business group will further facilitate the Alibaba subsidiary's capacity for developing and commercializing intellectual property in the entire culture and entertainment industrial chain.

China's online game market was worth more than USD24.1 billion (CNY160 billion)

last year. Experts expect that number will exceed CNY200 billion this year, and the country is now the world's largest game market.