Indian game developer ibibo hits the jackpot

June 19, 2010

While global social game developers such as Zynga face a downturn, the Indian website is going great guns

DNA Business Bureau.

Bangalore

Zynga, the largest developer of social games on sites like Facebook, may be facing a decline in the number of users - from 245 million monthly active users to 215 million, according to online traffic tracker AppData - but ibibo, the India-based gaming and social networking site, has seen a growth in user base, says Ashish Kashyap, CEO of the company.

"In India ibibo has the largest IP of social multiplayer and role-playing games. I cannot comment on Zynga, however, we have consistently seen a growth in usage," says Kashyap.

This, he says, is largely driven by two factors: firstly, the social graph along with the social game sites on ibibo. Secondly, local gaming content, which Indian youth can relate with - such as ibibo's role playing game the Great Indian Parking Wars, which is based on the story of the struggle for finding parking space in everyday life.

"The game has assets that one can easily relate with, like cows that you can put on your friend's street, autorickshaws, trucks etc. The game also incorporates issues such as politician's statues on one hand and petrol thefts on the other hand," says Kashyap.

Similarly, ibibo also offers multiplayer social games such as Teen Patti, which is based on a popular Indian card game. "Six friends can play this game live online while sitting anywhere in India. It is this local social gaming content that enables us to differentiate ourselves and hence, enable users to create their social graphs around each of these contexts," he says.

Though the site offers blogs and other networking features, social gaming is the most dominant activity on ibibo. "Social games act as an important catalyst for the users to form relationships. At the same time, activities on these game create a strong conversation starter amongst the community members. The core demographics are 15 to 24 years, with 70% males," Kashyap adds.

Games, like most commodities, have an expiry date and it is very common for gamers to move on when they get bored. But ibibo believes this issue can be solved by up dating games frequently. "The best way to understand this is to draw parallels with a TV soap. Social games that can constantly evolve with new stores and twists have a longer life. Further, by putting in elements that are topical inside the social games further adds constant interest and engagement level. For example, cheerleaders on your parking streets, new variations on Teen Patti... usually, a strong social game has a 6-24 months life cycle. But some games like Poker and Teen Patti are ever green," say Kashyap.

To further engage users, the site recently tied up with Aircel to enable its games on mobile phones. "Ibibo is the one of the first players in India to have launched social games on mobile. We are shortly introducing many more social games specifically for mobiles Parking Wars is the most popular social game on ibibio's mobile platform," says Kashyap, who believes 3G will further encourage users to embrace social games.