In MOL AccessPortal Pvt. Ltd, a payment service providers recently re-launched Friendster, the pioneer social networking site as a social gaming platform which is gaining momentum with increasing users and premium games.
Friendster has attracted more than half a million new users and now includes over 40 premium games. The new site is aimed at bringing social games to young Asians and helping games publishers and developers tap the robust Asian gaming markets.
Social gaming is a new genre of easy to play online game that is played by a wide demographic of users with their friends on social networks. Some of todays most popular social games on Friendster include BoomZ and Dragons Call.
Friendsters Chief Executive Officer Ganesh Kumar Bangah, said: Social gaming is rapidly gaining momentum in Asia. The early results attest to the fact that social gaming is proving to be creating deeper engagements and interactions for these young Asian users.
Friendster relaunch has increased Monthly Active Users and Daily Active Users by 50%. More than 90% of the new users are now based in Asia. There are currently over 40 premium games and hundreds of free-to-play games and applications with nearly half of the new users regularly playing between one to five games in the last 30 days. The top 30% of these users spend more than 45 minutes on Friendster during the last 30 days. More than 10% of the users have purchased virtual credits in Friendster to help them better enjoy their games.
Bangah further explained that the service continues to be developed and additional features are regularly being added in. Friendster has already added in Facebook Connect which allows users to login to Friendster using their Facebook account. Just last week the new site allows users to choose Simplified Chinese as their main interface. Popular gaming features such as chat and forums are expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.
Though social games on Friendster are offered free, exclusive in-game items can to be purchased. Friendsters virtual currency, Friendster Coins, has seen a healthy increase since the site was re-launched. Friendster, which was re-launched with a new brand and logo, has also introduced a free wireless Internet services at popular outlets such as Starbucks and Papa Jones across Malaysia.
Friendster was acquired by MOL Global in late 2009. MOL Global also operates MOL AccessPortal, a leading Internet payment provider for social networking sites, virtual worlds and social gaming platforms. As part of the re-launch, Friendster moved its business operations out of the US to Asia. Friendster is leveraging gaming specialists within the MOL team and the company now operates mainly from three Asian countries namely in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.
We are on the right track to make Friendster a sustainable online business, Bangah added. There are endless possibilities for us to extend our service offering to our users. We have major plans to introduce new channels and integrate more online and social activities.
Businesswire
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