A week has passed from Gamescom in Cologne- the event where industry key players introduce their new stuff and make partnership deal for the future. And yes a place where youngsters are basically killing each other to play some cool demo game.

Like in every year cool console games and almost real-life PC games got a lot of attention, but this year social gaming got an extra attention. Why? Mostly since it’s growing like bamboo. FarmVille has over 82.4m uses, FishVille got 0.87m users within two days after launch.

But it’s not only Zynga, the entire industry has been rocketing for the last few years. Social gaming market in EU and US together was $490m in 2009 and it is expected to almost double in 2010 and reach $840m. Is it all due to phenomenon of Facebook? Actually not, since these numbers are like candy money compared to Asia where the market hit $7b in 2009.

In general it is all due to the social effects in games, no matter is it in Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, QQ, Odnaklassniki or somewhere else. Because when a game is built on top of an existing platform, it has the opportunity to connect a user with their entire network of friends.

But what are actually the key elements that make social gaming successful?

1. Everyone who has internet can be potential players
2. It’s mostly free to play
3. Social network provides a great infrastructure for advertising and the game to go viral
4. It creates competition between friends
5. It’s interactive
6. It enables co-operation
7. Regularly scheduled tournaments/offers keep people playing
8. It gives people an opportunities to win prizes

It is hottest topic in the web biz world. No matter it’s on TC, Virtual Goods News, Venture Beat or even BBC, people everywhere are talking about the vitality of the virtual goods market in Asia. Many people are stunned by the fact that the biggest market of virtual goods is actually not in USA but in Asia. In a matter of fact, the VG in Asia is actually a $5 billion market in 2008, which is 25 times bigger than the States.

Indeed, most people from other parts of the world have just realized Asia has been in the leading position of VG for quite a while already. No matter on SNS or on web games, in China or in South Korea, the Asian counterparts seem to be steps ahead in terms of virtual goods monetization comparing to other places.
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If you have been following this series, you may have discovered I was focusing on the conceptual level than giving people something like guidelines or manuals. As the magic formula is constantly absent in the reality, I think the conceptual shift results in greater inspiration, which actually helps people to knock out the shell to success.

In the past 2 episodes, I have covered the paradoxical thinking among Web 2.0 start-up people, such as the missing income plan and the over rigid definition of value. Also, I was trying very hard to pimp everyone’s quantitative perception by fusing the relativity between small and big (hope I managed…) as we ought to think outside of the planet to get the whole picture.

Now come back to mother Earth, as revenue is inevitably a must for Web 2.0 start-ups and micro payment are our common ground, is there any trick/tip to be applied in the Web 2.0’s monetization strategy formulation? After the mind tuning process in the previous 2 episodes, it’s the time to handle the physical world.

Let me reveal the secret word “R” for Read the rest of this entry »

Recently we presented a script for MU Server Webshop (given to us by LiskO from EscapeMu). It allows all owners of MU online servers with Web Shops installed, to offer a convenient system for adding credits in their users accounts, through SMS. So, now your server can benefit from the long list of countries that we operate in. You can see which are they at Fortumo.com.

Following is a short interview with Rosen – the owner of Emerald Mu – one of the top international MU online servers.

How have you applied SMS-services?

Long time ago I decided to launch a MU Online game server. It developed well in time and I decided that I can earn money from it. I needed the services of Fortumo.bg because the Bulgarian users were only a small part of my visitors. The players can now send an SMS and in return they receive game credits. These credits are used in game for shopping.

Where did the idea of using SMS-services come from?

The previous payment methods were not convenient enough for the players. Transferring money through wired transfers or paypal transactions were available, but they were not automatic. A lot of players asked for SMS- services in their countries and that’s why, when I found Fortumo, they were very pleased.

Why did you decide to use SMS- services in your web business?

Among all MU Online servers in this game’s virtual world, most offer many types of payment methods, but not SMS. I decided that in order to attract more players I need something different. The automatic SMS- service is a great convenience for the players and the administrators.

Findit.fi is a free local classified website and is used by the local citizens and companies in Finland who want to sell or buy goods, products and services.

“Our goal is to create a clean and easy-to-use marketplace that allows visitors to browse and post listings in areas such as Motors, Electronics, Housing, Pets, Hobby, Business and Services. Findit.fi emphasizes the local aspect and thus have a search widget that allows users to customize their search results to a specific address or ZIP code, and then select within a certain distance from that location. The items are also visible on a map for easy navigation.”

Where did the idea of offering and starting a website like that come from?

The idea behind the Findit.fi site is that we wanted to build a similar site like Craiglist here in Finland, because Internet is very suitable for online advertisements. Findit.fi is currently one of the most rapid growing sites in Finland and many people has recognized that classifieds advertisements on Internet work very well for selling and buying of used products and vintage clothes.

How have you applied SMS-services on your website?

Private persons can publish their advertisements for free, but for companies we charge a minimal fee per advertisement and Fortumo’s SMS-service is used for that purpose, in another words for micro payments.

Where did the idea of using SMS-services come from?

The idea of using SMS-service came in a very early stage and it was obvious that micro-payment is very easy to-do by sending an SMS.

Why did you decide to use SMS-services in your web business?
The users have liked the idea of paying through SMS instead of using online bank services. Today we use Fortumo’s SMS- service for both Finland and Sweden, because we have users from both countries.

What has SMS-service additionally given you?
The SMS-service has opened the doors in order to be able to charge a minimal fee for additional services, and we will probably extend the services where SMS is being used for micro-payments.

By the way, findit.fi is currently seeking for partners in other countries (especially where Fortumo is operating in). They have plans for expanding the findit.fi concept into other EU countries. So if you’re interested in becoming a partner, email to info@findit.fi.

We’ve got a very exciting announcement today. We’re launching a new Fortumo Affiliate Program. Through this program you can promote Fortumo and earn additional revenue.

How does it work?
The model of Fortumo Affiliate Program is simple:
1. You promote Fortumo by placing a banner, text link, promotional code or any other Fortumo promotional item to your website, portal, blog, IM, Twitter, facebook account etc.
2. We pay you 20 EUR every time an user who had found Fortumo through your site has earned his or her first 50 EUR.

By doing this, you are not only earning money, but also promoting a worthwhile cause.

We have already provided you easy promotional tools:
* pre-made flash banners in different languages which you can place to your site
* pre-made text banners in different languages if you prefer text to flash, but you can use them both
* promotion code which you can share with others via IM, Twitter, e-mail, facebook account etc
* your promotion URL which you can also share with others via IM, Twitter, e-mail, facebook account etc

Inside your Fortumo account you are able keep an eye on how things are doing 24/7. It is possible to see the numbers of visits, registrations, affiliate revenue etc and informative graphs.

As the name says criminala is crime based free online web game where the main activities are not so legal. Every player´s main function is to be the greatest and strongest player in the game. There are so many activities that can’t be written – you just have to see and play it yourself.

“The idea of making web-based online crime game came actually from people from Netherlands. Also there was only one similar game in Estonia. Then we had enough motivation to create crime based game in Estonia. As Fortumo offers free, easy and quick services, we integrated SMS-services as well.”

How have you applied SMS-services?
There are always some people who want to be the best in low time. So we gave them the opportunity via SMS service. Users can voluntarily send an SMS message to certain number and get back some game credit what can be changed to various services and be the greatest player in the game.

Where did the idea of using SMS-services come from?
Integrating an SMS service for the site was an idea already from the beginning and as all the other game sites in Estonia were using SMS services as well.
Also it is the cheapest and fastest way to integrate paid services for websites and as we all know – almost everybody has a cellphone in Estonia.

Why did you decide to use SMS-services in your web business?
Main reason for using SMS services in our websites was and is because Fortumo offers free, easy and quick service to intergrate SMS services to any kind of service. Also SMS service is automatic so the end-users get their service instantly.

What has SMS-service additionally given you?
Actually everybody knows the answer to this question. Mainly SMS-services support us financially and of course, if there is money – there is motivation to develop the game and give players the pleasure to play the game.

Golive.ee is a free-time social network, what offers you to create your own homepage, communities, use forums, rate and comment other users and their photos, communicate with your friends and get new ones.

“I like the services that are offered by fortumo.com, because they help to start SMS-services quickly and simply for everybody. On my own site i am planning to add Fortumo´s mobile operator support for other countries, so that people from different places could use our services.”

How have you applied SMS-services?

The whole site is for free in general, but priced services enable to use the site conveniently. For example you can add advertisements, more friends into your friends list, have more photos on your profile. We use to have a competition, where you could give votes by sending messages. User just has to send a message with the right keyword and the credit will be transfered to the user´s golive.ee account what he/she can use or the user´s order will be activated. The best thing about SMS-services is that all the procedures happen instantly.

Where did the idea of using SMS-services come from?

The idea to create Golive came from the most successful social network site in Estonia. In the beginning people thought golive (old name dates-web.net) is the copy of the before reffered site, but very quickly it became for it´s content and opportunities even ideal enviroment than the competitor. Whereby there has been an infoleak that the competitor has added functionality after golive.ee.

Why did you decide to use SMS- services in your web business?

I started to use SMS-services cause everyone has a mobile phone and why not to use it in my business. Sending messages is easy and comfortableand users prefer it over bank transactions, what is rather time-consuming and unpleasant experience.

What has SMS-service additionally given you?

For the site it has given surplus value (trustworthiness, attractivity, convenience etc), for me a very postive experience with fortumo.com and additional knowleadge about sms gateway systems.

LOVER.EE is a real time socializing portal. It is a place for dialogue and acquaintances, watching photos, participation in photo competitions and many other things.

“Recently we started organizing club parties and we keep on developing game servers. We also co-operate with other serious internet projects like Fortumo and find interesting things what to do together. We constantly develop and become more attractive for our users. In the future you will see new sections and realizations of interesting ideas. It is interesting for us to work for people and it forces us to move forward.”

How have you applied SMS-services?

The basic SMS-services are presented in the form of ordering monetary unit of a portal – LOVERS. Units can be spent for getting additional slots for uploading photos, uploading user’s own gifts, buying styles (skins), buying points, changing nicknames, rating photos with maximum score and many other things. In the future you can expect some new stuff coming.

Where did the idea of using SMS-services come from?

The idea of our web-service has come into life about 3 years ago in the city of Tartu. Behind the LOVER.EE brand stands the team work of 3 people. In the beginning it was just an interesting hobby.

We (Pavel, Juri and Evgeny) wanted to create a service which first of all will be aimed to people, their interests, creativity and we did not want it to be the selfish tool of commercial profits.

Why did you decide to use SMS- services in your web business?

The idea of realization of SMS-services came in on a right time. In this period of time the usage of mobile phones and various SMS-services was growing. The basic advantage – availability and convenience in use. We used this possibility to pay money for the server. The increased loading and the traffic demanded some investments. Maintaining such a large portal is an expensive thing.

One of the pluses of using such SMS-services as Fortumo is not to focus on all technical and legal aspects (supporting and adjustments of SMS servers, contracts with mobile operators), but to concentrate on the aims.

What has SMS-service additionally given you?

SMS-services has given the chance to use additional functions and privileges on the portal. It increases interest and the importance of paid services.

At the moment there are more than 3.3 billion mobile phone users worldwide it makes 50% of total population, compared to 20% of internet’s. That is why experts are predicting great changes in mobile social networks’ field. According to Pyramid Research’s “Social Networking Goes Mobile” report the number of consumers worldwide using their mobile phones to access social networks will more than triple from 2010 to 2012.

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