Given recent events - OMGPOP, Instagram - and now GREE's all-cash $210 million purchase of Funzio, the temptation to use the word 'bubble' is almost overwhelming.
Indeed, Funzio's COO Anil Dharni - now a GREE International SVP - is happy to concede one could be developing.
Just not when it comes to Funzio.
"There are only a handful of companies in this industry that stand out in terms of having repeat hits and doing it profitably," he argues of Funzio's track record.
"Unlike some of the social apps companies, we have real revenue and real users. Our metrics show it."
Follow the money
As chief operating officer, those metrics are what Dharni focuses on, but he's not going to share them.
It's generally assumed Funzio's four free-to-play releases (three on iOS, and one Android port) have done over 20 million downloads. There's never been a sniff about its DAUs or MAUs though.
"Just look at the top grossing charts," Dharni says. "That's the blue chip metric for us."
He also points out that Funzio's focus on what it calls 'mid-core' - male, teen gamers - means that the number of downloads isn't actually a good comparative measure.
"Our users monetise higher than the competition and we have higher retention," he says. "Our games just perform better."
A significant aside is Dharni points to the performance of Funzio's games within the still fast growing iPad market.
"We're very bullish on iPad. Tablets continue to sell well and we expect the Android tablet market to grow too," he says, of a sector that's increasing looking like it's going to replace consoles in terms of gaming time for many young males.
Jetpacks at the ready
As for the future, Funzio is keen to integrate deeply and quickly with GREE.
"The point isn't to be at arms length. We need to know how it succeeds in Japan. We want to share knowledge," Dharni explains. "We want to integrate tightly."
As part of the deal, Funzio's executives all take positions in GREE's international operations. As with Dharni, CEO Ken Chiu also becomes a senior vice president, while CTO Ram Gudavalli and engineering head Andy Keidel joins as VPs running its client and server teams.
And the combined operation is sizeable.
GREE has 200 staff in San Francisco and continues to hire, while Funzio itself is over 130-strong. That's a lot of social mobile game developers in the Bay Area.
"With GREE, we can blow out the network," Dharni enthuses.
Interview
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Related Articles
as
News
Feb 17th, 2014
GREE sees FY14 Q2 sales down 7% to $310 million, but international sales rise to $72 million
Top Stories
News
May 4th, 2024
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Week in Views E10 - Brawl Stars smashes 2023 revenue, Square Enix’s extraordinary losses, and Haaland signs for Clash of Clans
News
May 3rd, 2024
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
Events
LA Games Conference 2024 | North America | May 6th |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Develop: Brighton 2024 | Europe | Jul 9th |