1）西班牙社交游戏公司Social Point最近宣布完成B轮融资并筹得740万美元。该轮融资由Idinvest Partners主导，其他支持者包括BBVA和Nauta Capital。

该公司计划利用这笔资金开发新款社交游戏，并拓展手机游戏市场。

social-point(from social-games-observer)

Social Point于2008年由Andrés Bou、Horacio Martos、Marc Canaleta成立，目前已是Facebook十大社交游戏公司之一，旗下代表作包括《Social Empires》、《Social Wars》和《Dragon City》，主要瞄准中度硬核游戏市场，截止2012年公司MAU超过1500万。

2）据venturebeat报道，Facebook原先每个页面仅显示3个广告，但2010年增加至4个广告，不久前又增至六七个广告，现在每页甚至显示10个广告。

facebook-ads-10(from venturebeat.com)

针对这一现象，观察者分析称Facebook需警惕自己重蹈MySpace的覆辙。MySpace在2008年6月是运行展示广告多达510亿次，该平台当时迫于为母公司新闻集团创造更多收益的压力，不得不接收更多广告业务。

但每页广告数量与其收益成反比，从2006年到2007年，其广告点击率也从1%降至0.1%，在2010年甚至降至0.04%。Facebook当时就是汲取MySpace教训，所以在一开始就仅在每页显示一则广告。

当然，Facebook击败MySpace有多个原因，广告业务只是其中一之。但现在的Facebook迫于IPO压力及表现不济的移动端收益，却也开始对此妥协并重走MySpace旧路。

3）J.P.Morgan分析师Doug Anmuth最近预测，由于更高的定价及更频繁的访问率，Facebook移动平台的广告业务来年每季度收益可能突破3亿美元。

Facebook在第一季度的8.72亿美元收益几乎全部来自桌面展示广告，以及出现于用户news feed的赞助广告。该公司最近为广告商添加了仅针对移动平台的服务。

Anmuth认为Facebook可以在用户每次安装应用时向广告商收费，其移动平台广告eCPM可能超越原有广告业务。

facebook_mobile_ads(from entrepreneur.com)

4）《Moshi Monsters》开发商Mind Candy日前宣布任命前Playfish运营总监Ken Ward为公司人力资源总监，Ward将负责领导Mind Candy的招聘团队，监管公司的人才战略。

Mind Candy目前正为伦敦工作室招聘包括手机应用开发者及设计师在内的80个空缺岗位。

该公司在今年5月与GREE达成合作协议，将于第四季度向GREE手机社交平台引进两款基于《Moshi Monsters》的手机游戏。

5）在本周DAU增长最快的Facebook游戏榜单上，EA游戏《模拟人生社交版》（The Sims Social）位居榜首；该游戏自去年9月达到1130万DAU高峰后就一直在流失用户，但EA在过去数周不断推广该游戏的举措取得了成效，使其本周新增60万DAU，增幅为24%。

top gainers this week-DAU(from AppData)

EA新作《模拟城市社交版》（SimCity Social）同样表现不俗，位居第二，新增DAU达58万，增幅为176%。Zynga游戏《Texas HoldEm Poker》排名第三，新增40万DAU，增幅为6%。Soical Point游戏《Dragon City》位居第四，新增31万DAU，增幅为39%。FreshPlanet游戏《SongPop》居于第五名，新增30万DAU，增幅为16%。

NaturalMotion Games游戏《CSR Racing》新增18万DAU，增幅为106%；迪士尼Playdom新游戏《Ghosts of Mistwood》新增8万DAU，增幅为160%。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Spanish Social Game Developer Heavyweight Social Point Raises $7.4M

By Gary Merrett

ShareTweet Spanish based Social Point, one of the biggest European social games developer just announced it has closed a Series-B of $7.4 million led by Idinvest Partners, with participation from other funds including BBVA and existing investor Nauta Capital. The funds will fast track Social Point’s plans to bring new social games to the market and to expand into mobile games. The teams of developers, game designers, IT engineers and support functions will be significantly strengthened in the coming months. The funds will also enable the company to increase the capacity of its platform to better manage its exponential growth.

Founded in 2008 by Andrés Bou and Horacio Martos, co-CEOs of Social Point, and Marc Canaleta, CTO, the Company is a top 10 global developer of social games on Facebook. In the last 18 months it has launched a number of leading social games, such as Social Empires, Social Wars and its latest hit Dragon City. The Company is launching this July the mobile version of Social Empires, and has a strong pipeline of new facebook and mobile games for the next 6 months. With all games combined, the Company has over 15 million monthly active users as of June 2012.

Most Social Point games are targeted to the highly attractive mid-core segment of players. The Company has a strong pipeline of new games to launch on Facebook and on mobile in the coming months. New games will allow for seamless integration between different platforms.（source:socialgamesobserver）

2）Facebook, please don’t become MySpace (and put too many ads on each page)

John Koetsier

Remember when Facebook only showed three ads on each page? And when the company moved to four in 2010? More recently, the company has been at six, and I’m currently seeing seven, but Facebook is now testing up to 10 ads per page … and I’m thinking of some ancient history.

Like how Facebook beat MySpace in the first place.

MySpace ran huge numbers of display ads — 51 billion in June 2008. So many, in fact, that users started building up immunity — what we now call adblindness. As the site was pressed to make higher and higher revenue goals for then-parent-company News Corp, however, MySpace showed more and more ads.

The result was predictable.

Facebook – I’m seeing 7 ads per page

Revenue per page went down as the number of ads went up. Clickthroughs went from one in a hundred to one in a thousand in a single year — 2006 to 2007 – and even worse thereafter, to four in 10,000 in 2010.

Facebook learned from those and other MySpace mistakes, and started out with only one ad per page.

That’s right: one ad per page.

There are many reasons why Facebook won and MySpace lost, and the ad story is only one of them. But now Facebook, under pressure after a lackluster IPO and poor mobile monetization, may not only be compromising some of its principles and surrendering to the need to drive cash flow but also starting to follow the path of its failed competitor.

Ten ads from one is an order of magnitude change, and it has happened in just a few short years. While you could argue that some ads are beneficial to the user experience if they’re relevant and timely, more is not necessarily better.

And Facebook might want to remember why it won, before it starts to lose.（source:venturebeat）

3）Facebook to make $300m from mobile ads this quarter?

by Tim Green

That’s nearly a third of all revenue.

A research note from J.P.Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth reckons the social giant is on its way to clawing some revenue back from mobile – a platform it famously admitted it was struggling to monetise in disclosures made before its IPO.

Almost all of Facebook’s Q1 revs of $872 million came from desktop display ads and sponsored stories that appear in users’ news feeds.

The firm recently added a mobile-only options for advertisers, but is aware of how delicate this strategy needs to be given users’ differing attitudes to ‘intrusion’ on a mobile device.

Still, Anmuth believes that it will work, and that apps will be a crucial component. He says Facebook could potentially charge advertisers every time an app is installed on a phone, and the eCPMs could be well ahead of existing advertising.

His report said: “We are bullish on Facebook’s mobile monetization potential and we believe mobile ad revenue per user could exceed that of existing desktop levels, driving mobile ad revenue of $300M+ per quarter at some point within the next year as higher pricing and visit frequency offset fewer overall impressions.”（source:mobile-ent）

4）Mind Candy appoints ex-Playfish exec Ken Ward as talent director

by James Nouch

Mind Candy, the British studio behind the Moshi Monsters franchise, has appointed former Playfish people operations director Ken Ward to serve as director of talent.

Ward will be responsible for the direction and management of Mind Candy’s recruitment team, and will oversee the company’s talent acquisition strategy.

Right now, Mind Candy is recruiting for around 80 vacancies in its London offices, including mobile developers and designers.

Busy week

“Mind Candy is an incredible company – the chance to help build such an exciting vision was too compelling to pass up,” said Ward, whose previous roles include staffing consultant at Skype and recruiter for Barclay’s Wealth Management.

“We have a talented, passionate and committed team and I’m thrilled to help build upon such strong foundations,” Ward concluded.

His appointment follows the news of Mind Candy’s acquisition of UK games studio Origami Blue, and the launch of its new R&D lab.

“We’re delighted to have Ken on board, he brings a wealth of experience to the role following his years at Playfish and has made a great impact on the business since joining,” added Mind Candy COO and CFO Divinia Knowles.

In May 2012, Mind Candy entered into a partnership with GREE to bring Moshi Monsters to mobile. As such, Mind Candy will deliver two Moshi Monsters games for a Q4 2012 release on GREE’s mobile platform.（source:pocketgamer）

5）EA’s “Sim” games are this week’s fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Mike Thompson

EA scored big this week with both of its social “Sim” titles, which took the top two spots on our list of fastest-growing Facebook games by daily active user. The Sims Social has been steadily dropping since its September 2011 peak of 11.3 million DAU, but EA’s been promoting the game heavily for the past few weeks and adding in new quests requiring players to get help from friends in order to complete them. This strategy is clearly paying off, as The Sims Social took the No. 1 spot this week with 600,000 DAU, a 24 percent gain.

SimCity Social, meanwhile, is also starting to take off: The game took the No. 2 spot with 580,000 DAU for a 176 percent gain. Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker came in at No. 3 with 400,000 DAU, a 6 percent increase. Social Point’s Dragon City took No. 4 on the list with its 39 percent gain courtesy of the 310,000 DAU it brought in. FreshPlanet’s SongPop took the No. 5 spot with 300,000 DAU, a 16 percent gain.

Two other games on the list show gains greater than 100 percent. NaturalMotion Games’s CSR Racing was up by 180,000 DAU, growing 106 percent. Disney Playdom’s recently-launched Ghosts of Mistwood took in 80,000 DAU for a 160 percent gain.（source:insidesocialgames）