GOOGLE SOCIAL GAMING SPENDING SPREE CONTINUES
3 September 2010
Internet giant buys SocialDeck
Google's advance into the world of social network gaming
(see previous InfoPowa reports) continued this week with
the acquisition of SocialDeck - its fifth purchase in
August, according to the publication Sci Tech Today.
SocialDech develops games for the iPhone, Facebook
and BlackBerry, and its more popular titles include
Shake & Spell 3D, Color Connect, and Pet Hero Puzzle.
Google is expected to emphasise games in its Facebook
competitor, called Google Me.
"We're super
excited to announce that someone found our social games
as much fun as you have - in this case, that 'someone'
is Google," SocialDeck crowed on its web site.
Founded in 2008 by Anish Acharya and Jeson Patel, the
company has released a number of free apps using
technology that makes possible simultaneous game play
across multiple mobile devices and social networks. The
technology also facilitates viral content discovery,
distribution and monetisation.
SocialDeck raised
its first financing round from the BlackBerry Partners
Fund in March 2009. It reached the
million-mobile-download milestone in February this year.
Only a week back, Google also purchased Angstro,
which works to compliment Google's news aggregator
services by analysing information from multiple data
sources to deliver fewer, but more accurate, results.
Earlier, Google negotiated the acquisition of another
apps developer, Slide, for $182 million, securing the
rights to top games like SuperPoke!, Pets and Academy of
Magic.
Google also recently acquired Jambool,
which peddles a virtual economy platform called Social
Gold that developers can use to create currency systems
and monetise them using in-game payments. Founded by
Amazon.com veterans, Social Gold also offers analytics,
and is found in popular Zynga games.
"Google has
been investing fairly heavily in games, seemingly as the
'hook' or basis for its renewed social-networking push.
It reportedly made an earlier - though still unconfirmed
- $100 million investment in Zynga," said Greg Sterling,
principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "SocialDeck
is a mobile game developer, suggesting that mobile is
also a key piece of Google's social strategy -- as I
would expect it to be, given Android's success." Google
also launched Google Social Search in January to help
searchers find relevant web content published by friends
and contacts.
Online Casino News Courtesy of
Infopowa
More news here.
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