One of my fav portals has just got 5 Million investment, and they have changed there name to OMGPOP.com very cool name.
Having recently invited Charles to an Event to be a speaker which he had to decline as he was pre rev and was watching the pennies......its really great to see all the hard work has paid off.
The 5 Million has been raised on the strength of its plans to begin monetizing the site through offers of premium service subscriptions, virtual goods, and virtual currency. The round was lead by Bessemer Venture Partners with past investors Spark Capital and and Baseline contributing, as reported by Venture Beat.
Just shows you do something well and the money is out there.
Showing posts with label portals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portals. Show all posts
Friday, March 13, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
REPORT: Online gaming
In the latest of statistics to be release ComScore say the time spent playing online games in the US has grown 42 per cent in the last year.
Furthermore, now gaming online makes up 4.9 per cent of all of America’s internet use, compared to 3.7 per cent in December 2007.
So what does this all mean for you and your project?
Estimated internet users in the US for June 2008 248,000,0000
Number of people playing online games (35% of the US internet population) 86,000,000
Some sites with high volumes of traffic
UVPM (unique visitors per month per site, does not account for people visiting more than one site)
Habbo.com around 500k
IMVU.com around 2.5 million
Real Arcade 1.6 million
Big Fish Games 2.6 million
Miniclip 5 million
Pogo 8.5 million
Yahoo Games 4.5 million
Stardoll 1.3 million
Pogo are attracting a whopping 10% of online gaming traffic.
Do you know why?
For a long time they have been growing an nurturing a community, they have been listening and responding to the needs of their community. They have managed to encourage cooperative gaming and get their community talking while still having a competitive feel. Just as important they manage to develop loyalty. That can only happen if you give players a reason to be loyal. So many sites miss these important fact.
Also you need to be aware of who you are targeting, know your customer, and your market size in relation to competition and age demographics. The published figures can be deceiving and make many developers over estimate the figures they will get to their site.
A good way to go is to decide what you actually want in market share. So if the kids 6-11 sector represents 8 million players and your game is targeted at boys only then cut that by 50%. Then you aim to get 5% market share then you will have 200,000 UVPM. Then of course you have to work out how you will monetize everything so you can stay in business. For that you will need to know conversion ratios, churn rates and what your revenue lines are at the very least.
You may think this is basic stuff but so many times I speak to people or read about money invested in projects that don't have the proper planning or the full understanding of the market.
We shall come back to this topic shortly and put together some examples that may be helpful.
Furthermore, now gaming online makes up 4.9 per cent of all of America’s internet use, compared to 3.7 per cent in December 2007.
So what does this all mean for you and your project?
Estimated internet users in the US for June 2008 248,000,0000
Number of people playing online games (35% of the US internet population) 86,000,000
Some sites with high volumes of traffic
UVPM (unique visitors per month per site, does not account for people visiting more than one site)
Habbo.com around 500k
IMVU.com around 2.5 million
Real Arcade 1.6 million
Big Fish Games 2.6 million
Miniclip 5 million
Pogo 8.5 million
Yahoo Games 4.5 million
Stardoll 1.3 million
Pogo are attracting a whopping 10% of online gaming traffic.
Do you know why?
For a long time they have been growing an nurturing a community, they have been listening and responding to the needs of their community. They have managed to encourage cooperative gaming and get their community talking while still having a competitive feel. Just as important they manage to develop loyalty. That can only happen if you give players a reason to be loyal. So many sites miss these important fact.
Also you need to be aware of who you are targeting, know your customer, and your market size in relation to competition and age demographics. The published figures can be deceiving and make many developers over estimate the figures they will get to their site.
A good way to go is to decide what you actually want in market share. So if the kids 6-11 sector represents 8 million players and your game is targeted at boys only then cut that by 50%. Then you aim to get 5% market share then you will have 200,000 UVPM. Then of course you have to work out how you will monetize everything so you can stay in business. For that you will need to know conversion ratios, churn rates and what your revenue lines are at the very least.
You may think this is basic stuff but so many times I speak to people or read about money invested in projects that don't have the proper planning or the full understanding of the market.
We shall come back to this topic shortly and put together some examples that may be helpful.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
GAMES: iminlikewithyou launch new Jigsaw game
Following on from their ragging success of multiplayer Tetris which I'm completely addicted to Iminlikeiwthyou.com. have launched a new collaborative multiplayer jigsaw game.
If you want to learn anything about how to do casual games in a unique fun way this site is great. Well presented great games, simple and addictive, not too much choice all wrapped up with social elements.
This site attracts some 55,000 UPPM in the US and have similar figures for the rest of the world, but over 60% of traffic is from the USA.
It has great potential and the item based transactions should catch on as they help you win games, although this can be a bit frustrating when people obviously win because they have purchased numerous power ups.
The company received 1.5 million in funding this year from Spark Capital, baseline ventures, Betaworks Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen
If you want to learn anything about how to do casual games in a unique fun way this site is great. Well presented great games, simple and addictive, not too much choice all wrapped up with social elements.
This site attracts some 55,000 UPPM in the US and have similar figures for the rest of the world, but over 60% of traffic is from the USA.
It has great potential and the item based transactions should catch on as they help you win games, although this can be a bit frustrating when people obviously win because they have purchased numerous power ups.
The company received 1.5 million in funding this year from Spark Capital, baseline ventures, Betaworks Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Business : SPIL signs with Triplepoint PR
Not long after they employed Ex Google Sydney Mock SPIL Games has appointed international PR firm TriplePointto head up its branding efforts in North America and Europe.
Its campaign will focus on SPIL’s success as a high-traffic advertising platform and its engagement with what it describes as a lucrative audience. It will also look to increase the awareness of SPIL’s range of targeted gaming portals."
Clearly Spil are paving the way for growth and expansion. And now Sydney is on board I imagine we will start to see Spil using their power and position to try out other opportunities, remember google was just a search engine to start with. Sydney has been involved with several major product releases from google including maps, Igoogle and YOUTUBE. I wonder where your head is Sydney??
Its campaign will focus on SPIL’s success as a high-traffic advertising platform and its engagement with what it describes as a lucrative audience. It will also look to increase the awareness of SPIL’s range of targeted gaming portals."
Clearly Spil are paving the way for growth and expansion. And now Sydney is on board I imagine we will start to see Spil using their power and position to try out other opportunities, remember google was just a search engine to start with. Sydney has been involved with several major product releases from google including maps, Igoogle and YOUTUBE. I wonder where your head is Sydney??
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
SPIL hits 100 million
SPIL Games has announced that it has cemented its position as the world’s second most popular casual games network, with official stats from Google Analytics showing that its monthly unique user count now reaches 100 million.
The network boasts over 50 targeted sites worldwide in a number of territories including the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Russia, Turkey, North America and Brazil. Its portals are targeted towards specific segments of the casual market, and include the likes of Games.co.uk, Mygames.co.uk and Girlsgogames.co.uk."
spillgames
The network boasts over 50 targeted sites worldwide in a number of territories including the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Russia, Turkey, North America and Brazil. Its portals are targeted towards specific segments of the casual market, and include the likes of Games.co.uk, Mygames.co.uk and Girlsgogames.co.uk."
spillgames
Monday, October 27, 2008
Mear morsels - make sure you swallow!
If you want to read any of the full stories Google the text u lazy B's
Disney Pixie Hollow released
Jagex maker of Runescape launches casual website Fun Orb
Zomg gets over 120,000 applications for the Closed Beta
Fuel industries to launch virtual world from their all girl arcade portal
Game Station warns retail is very crowded (OMG really) just go into any store that sells games.
EA shouting about the significance of online. Of course online represents a large opportunity as it allows MASS market access to games (casual games has the greatest potential)
Best Of I-phone FingerGaming is Equilibrio, Villagers, and Topple
Activision confirms DJ hero (it was only a matter of time) soon it will be producer hero, Dead painting Star and "impressionist fever" the game where you can take off the president, your fav sports star and comedian.
Disney Pixie Hollow released
Jagex maker of Runescape launches casual website Fun Orb
Zomg gets over 120,000 applications for the Closed Beta
Fuel industries to launch virtual world from their all girl arcade portal
Game Station warns retail is very crowded (OMG really) just go into any store that sells games.
EA shouting about the significance of online. Of course online represents a large opportunity as it allows MASS market access to games (casual games has the greatest potential)
Best Of I-phone FingerGaming is Equilibrio, Villagers, and Topple
Activision confirms DJ hero (it was only a matter of time) soon it will be producer hero, Dead painting Star and "impressionist fever" the game where you can take off the president, your fav sports star and comedian.
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