Vkontakte, Russia’s leading social network also known as VK.com, is about to launch a gaming platform for developers of games on mobile devices, Vkontakte representative Georgy Lobushkin told Russian business daily Vedomosti. At present, there are games apps only on the web version of the social network.
The platform will be for creators of games on the iOS and Android operating systems (although the app for iOS is still being blocked by Apple). According to Lobushkin, the platform will work as part of the main VKontakte mobile app. It will have a list of games and a player notification function.
Last year alone, Lobushkin said, VKontakte paid developers 2 billion rubles. In 2013, the social network took 45% of the income of game developers and the social network’s deduction will grow to 50% with mobile games. In that case, the company could receive more than 4 billion rubles from games alone.
Vkontakte is not making a forecast of its future income from mobile games.
In 2013, the mobile games segment grew by almost 70% in Russia, says head of the Mail.Ru Group games division Oleg Shpilchevsky. Social games are growing more slowly than in the past, but it has to be remembered that, at the moment, they have a large share on the online games market.
In 2012, social and mobile games had 26% and 7% of the Russian market, respectively, which is $353 million and $99 million in absolute terms, Shpilchevsky said.
Source: Vedomosti
