Wooga GmbH是在线社交游戏领域的一颗冉冉升起的新星，也是非硅谷社交游戏开发商之一。

这家位于德国柏林的公司在2009年7月发布了首款游戏《Brain Buddies》，目前是Facebook平台上MAU（月活跃用户人数）位居第四名的社交游戏开发商，正试图打破由Zynga、EA、Crowdstar等加州社交游戏开发商一统天下的局面。

据AppData在4月1日的数据显示，Wooga游戏的月活跃用户将近1900万，超过去年的两倍，但与社交游戏巨头Zynga同一时期的2.67亿活跃用户相比，仍存在较大差距。

Monster World

Wooga的产品与Zynga一样都是免费体验游戏，该公司正尝试通过出售《Monster Island》和《Diamond Dash》等游戏虚拟道具创造收益。目前该公司尚无可观利润，去年收益尚不足千万欧元。该公司已通过伦敦的Balderton Capital Management、德国的Holtzbrink Ventures融资550万欧元（约合790万美元）。

该公司联合创始人及CEO是34岁的Jens Begemann，他认为Wooga的快速发展得益于对社交游戏领域的专注，以及对国际市场的关注。该公司有数个本土化项目小组，负责将游戏语言翻译成意大利语、法语、葡萄牙语和土耳其语等多国语言版本，并根据各个市场的民俗风情，因地制宜地开发本土化虚拟道具。所以该公司游戏的主要用户是欧洲玩家。

在Begemann看来，社交游戏开发商很少关注欧洲市场的用户，许多充满美式风格的游戏其实并不适合欧洲用户。

社交游戏并非新鲜事物，它们在游戏界地位的上升，很大程度上得归功于Facebook的繁荣发展。据该公司所称，其用户在宇航员、树屋和魔法杖等游戏道具上的平均消费水平是16美分至7.5美元。自去年6月以来，该公司总共售出了2600万根魔法杖。

据ThinkEquity公司预测，2010年社交游戏的虚拟商品销售额已从2009年的14亿美元，增长至29.9亿美元。《FarmVille》和《CityVille》开发商Zynga目前的身价也将近100亿美元，并已融得数亿美元的风险资金。

但投资银行Digi-Capital Ltd.,总经理Tim Merel却认为，像Wooga这种依赖于Facebook的社交游戏公司最终会陷入麻烦，因为它们处于劣势，而Facebook却掌握了谈判的主动权，社交游戏开发商不但要向Facebook出让30%的收益，而且还得额外支付广告费用，以便在该平台推广自己的游戏。

top five game makers on facebook

Tim Merel的观点是，“这些公司已面临一个巨大挑战，这个挑战来自Facebook。”

Begemann称Wooga目前仅在Facebook平台运营游戏，但计划今年底进军苹果iPhone和iPad平台。不过该公司并没有在Facebook上投入大笔营销费用来推广游戏，而是通过内部交叉推广方式，让旗下游戏的用户相互流通。

该公司座落于柏林，也就意味着他们不需要与谷歌、苹果等巨头在争夺应用开发者上形成正面交锋。虽然柏林的人才比硅谷更廉价，但Begemann表示他们并不在乎钱的问题，与科技巨头抢夺顶尖人才才是他们面临的真正挑战。

ResearchGate等其他柏林新兴企业也有相同看法，该研究人员社交网站在去年9月已融得firms Accel Partners和Benchmark Capital等风险投资机构的资金。

Begemann自称已为公司设定了一个远大目标，那就是通过每三个月推出一款新游戏，每周至少招聘一名新成员，争取在年底时成为Facebook平台第二大游戏开发商。

Wooga设立这个目标的原因是，社交游戏公司往往很依赖人员规模，而这个行业的发展面貌又即将成为定局。目前电子游戏巨头EA仍把持着Facebook游戏开发商亚军宝座，该公司在2009年以4亿美元收购了Playfish，而迪士尼也在去年以5.36多亿美元收购了Playfish的竞争对手Playdom。

Begemann表示，“我认为在今年底，如果你还不能进入前三强行列，那就会遇到大麻烦。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Bringing Social Games to Europe

Wooga Seeks to Woo Players, but Some See Risk in Relying on Facebook.Article Stock Quotes Comments more in Media &

.Wooga GmbH is one of a handful of rising stars in the competitive world of online social games. It is also the only one not in Silicon Valley.

Since launching its first game, “Brain Buddies,” in July 2009, Berlin-based Wooga has become the fourth-largest games developer by monthly average users on social network Facebook Inc. It is trying to crack a market that is dominated by California-based companies, including Zynga Inc., Electronic Arts Inc. and Crowdstar Inc.

Nearly 19 million people were playing Wooga’s games on April 1, according to AppData, a tracking service. That’s more than double a year earlier, but well behind market leader Zynga, which had 267 million users on Facebook on the same date.

Like Zynga, Wooga’s games are free to play, and the company tries to generate revenue by selling virtual items in games such as “Monster Island” and “Diamond Dash.” Wooga is currently unprofitable and had revenue in single digit millions of euros last year. It has rased €5.5 million ($7.9 million) in funding from Britain’s Balderton Capital Management and Germany’s Holtzbrink Ventures.

Wooga’s fast rise stems from its focus on social gaming, an increasingly lucrative part of the gaming business, where gamers connect and interact with friends via easy-to-play online games.

Jens Begemann, Wooga’s 34-year-old founder and chief executive, also attributes his firm’s success to its international focus. Region-specific teams inside Wooga translate games into seven languages, including Italian, French, Portuguese and Turkish, and tailor virtual items for sale to each market. The result is a user base that is majority European.

.”Europe is definitely a little bit underserved. Many games are not translated, and they feel very American,” said Mr. Begemann, who got his start at Jamba, a Berlin mobile entertainment firm.

While social games aren’t new, Facebook’s growth has elevated their status in the gaming world. The company said roughly 3% of its audience shells out between 16 cents and $7.50 for items such as astronauts, tree houses and magic wands. Since June, the company says it has sold roughly 26 million magic wands.

Sales of virtual goods globally in social games more than doubled to $2.99 billion last year from $1.4 billion in 2009, brokerage firm ThinkEquity estimates. Market leader Zynga, which makes the games “FarmVille” and “Cityville,” is valued at close to $10 billion, and has already raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital.

Companies such as Wooga that are today dependent on Facebook will be troubled in the long run, because it puts Facebook in a strong negotiating position, said Tim Merel, managing director of Digi-Capital Ltd., an investment bank. Mr. Merel said that, in general, social-gaming companies give 30% of their sales to Facebook, and pay extra to promote their games on the site.

“They have a huge challenge, and that challenge is Facebook,” he said.

Mr. Begemann said for now Wooga is exclusively on Facebook, but the company plans to launch games on mobile devices such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad later this year. Instead of spending heavily on Facebook to promote its games, Wooga cross-promotes and offers incentives for its games within each other.

The CEO travels to Silicon Valley every ten weeks to compensate for Wooga’s geographic distance from Facebook. Basing the company in Berlin means Wooga doesn’t compete with giants such as Google Inc. and Apple for software developers. While engineers are slightly cheaper to hire in Berlin versus Silicon Valley, Mr. Begemann said the real challenge isn’t the money, but competing with the cachet of the tech giants for top talent.

The same sentiments have been echoed by other Berlin start-ups, such as ResearchGate, a social network for researchers, which got funding from venture-capital firms Accel Partners and Benchmark Capital in September.

Mr. Begemann has set an aggressive goal to be the second-largest games developer on Facebook by the end of the year, by launching a game every three months and hiring at least one new employee every week.

That’s because the business model for social-gaming companies relies heavily on scale, and the industry is consolidating fast. The second place spot on Facebook is currently held by videogame giant Electronic Arts, which acquired London-based social games developer Playfish in 2009 in a deal valued at $400 million. Last year, Walt Disney Co. acquired another rival, Playdom, for at least $563 million.

“I am convinced by the end of this year, if you are not among the top three,” Mr. Begemann warned, “you have a big problem.”（source：wsj）