Here is a summary of the latest news and
highlights in the social gaming industry that
took place this
week:
The week kicked off with an announcement from
Social Gaming Network (SGN), game publishers for iOS devices like iPhone and
iPad as well as the PC. SGN announced that they had raised $2 million from
Tomorrow Ventures and Xing founder Lars Hinrichs. While their focus has
primarily been on iOS devices, founder and executive chairman Shervin Pishevar
says SGN plans to start releasing titles for Android
smartphones.
Boston-based MocoSpace announced the launch of a mobile, browser-based social games platform. The company said it is focusing on games on mobile browsers so that it can reach the widest possible audiences. Rivals include MySpace Mobile, Facebook, Aurora Feint, Ngcomo, Scoreloop, and PapayaMobile.
It's been a busy week for Playdom, one of the industry's leading social game developers and one of our partners here at hi5. On Tuesday, Playdom closed $33 million in a third round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Steamboat Ventures, and New World Ventures (Playdom has raised $76 million to date). This morning, Playdom announced the acquisition of Hive7.com, a Facebook developer whose biggest game is Knighthood.
According to a new study from Frank N. Magid Associates, American consumers spent $168
million on mobile virtual
goods in the last year, and they're expected to do so again in the year ahead.
Per the report, over 70 million Americans own smartphones and 45% of those
owners play games, while 16% of them are buying in-game goods. The average
amount spent? $41 per person! Magid Advisors president Mike Vorhaus weighed in
on the results of the study and said, "Everybody knows free-to-play social
gaming models on PC platforms have been making a killing but mobile virtual
goods aren't as well understood. With almost 20 percent of smartphone gamers
already making purchases, there's a lot of room for the market to keep taking
off as smartphones continue to increase in popularity."
Wednesday was another big day for funding announcements as well - both HeyZap and PapayaMobile announced funding rounds. Online gaming platform HeyZap announced the closing of a $3 million round of venture funding led by Union Square Ventures, joined by Naval Ravikant and Chris Dixon for Founder Collective. The company's aim is to make social games more like YouTube videos, so that publishers can embed them on any web page. HeyZap stated that they will be using the funds to grow the company over the next few weeks. Beijing-based PapayaMobile raised $4 million for the launch of its new mobile social networking platform on Android devices. The platform has attracted 3.5 million global users in the past year by launching its own social games on mobile phones. Now it's opening up the platform to third-party developers who can integrate the social platform into their own games.
million on mobile virtual
goods in the last year, and they're expected to do so again in the year ahead.
Per the report, over 70 million Americans own smartphones and 45% of those
owners play games, while 16% of them are buying in-game goods. The average
amount spent? $41 per person! Magid Advisors president Mike Vorhaus weighed in
on the results of the study and said, "Everybody knows free-to-play social
gaming models on PC platforms have been making a killing but mobile virtual
goods aren't as well understood. With almost 20 percent of smartphone gamers
already making purchases, there's a lot of room for the market to keep taking
off as smartphones continue to increase in popularity."Wednesday was another big day for funding announcements as well - both HeyZap and PapayaMobile announced funding rounds. Online gaming platform HeyZap announced the closing of a $3 million round of venture funding led by Union Square Ventures, joined by Naval Ravikant and Chris Dixon for Founder Collective. The company's aim is to make social games more like YouTube videos, so that publishers can embed them on any web page. HeyZap stated that they will be using the funds to grow the company over the next few weeks. Beijing-based PapayaMobile raised $4 million for the launch of its new mobile social networking platform on Android devices. The platform has attracted 3.5 million global users in the past year by launching its own social games on mobile phones. Now it's opening up the platform to third-party developers who can integrate the social platform into their own games.
Boston-based MocoSpace announced the launch of a mobile, browser-based social games platform. The company said it is focusing on games on mobile browsers so that it can reach the widest possible audiences. Rivals include MySpace Mobile, Facebook, Aurora Feint, Ngcomo, Scoreloop, and PapayaMobile.
It's been a busy week for Playdom, one of the industry's leading social game developers and one of our partners here at hi5. On Tuesday, Playdom closed $33 million in a third round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Steamboat Ventures, and New World Ventures (Playdom has raised $76 million to date). This morning, Playdom announced the acquisition of Hive7.com, a Facebook developer whose biggest game is Knighthood.
Coming up next week, we'll be attending the
first-ever Social
Developer Summit, hosted by mediabistro.com and All Facebook founder Nick
O'Neill. We anticipate that it will be an interesting event for developers,
focused on social news, games, discovery, search, and other solutions. Notable
speakers include Jason Oberfest of ngmoco:), Luke Rajlich of Zynga's Farmville,
John Smart of Zoosk, Jia Shen of Rock You, Arin Sarkissian of Digg, and Immad
Akhund of HeyZap. If you're interested in meeting with us at the event, please
drop us a
line.
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