Newly repositioned as a 'game distribution company builder', German company HitFox is rounding off explosive growth during 2012 with the announcement of new operations in Paris and San Francisco.

This follows the news that it's opened an office in Seoul, South Korea.

"Our vision is that we will be close to our publisher partners on every continent as we deliver them traffic on the web and to their mobile games," explains HitFox CEO Jan Beckers.

Two for growth

In terms of new hires, the US office is headed by Nicole DeMeo. Previously with a consultant with Scoreloop and Peak Games, she takes the role of veep marketing and strategic relations.

Jean-Philippe Decka, previously with Rocket Internet, is HitFox's new head of business development in Paris.

"We are already generating 80 percent of our revenues from international customers," points out Beckers.

"The US is the most important market, followed by Germany, France and the other big European countries. We are committed to growing our core markets with local teams, with Nicole DeMeo and Jean-Philippe Decka taking the lead in San Francisco and Paris."

Building stronger with three

HitFox is the parent company to three start ups, which it backs, accelerates and operates synergistically.

These are online game marketing outfit ad2games; non-incentivised mobile download platform AppLift; and mobile game discovery company and app Game Finder.

The headcount of the three companies has risen from 25 to 75 during 2012, and Beckers reckons this will double in 2013, while he expects revenues will rise five-fold.

He's looking to add one or two companies to HitFox's portfolio, either in terms of acquisition or via organic start up, too.

"Of course, valuations in the sector are high, but in certain niches or regional markets, we think there are under managed companies we can improve," he says.

One such example is ad2games, which HitFox bought in February 2012, tripling its revenues over the past ten months.

"Buying companies can provide a time advantage but we're happy to build better if we can," Beckers adds.

Full speed ahead

In general, though, HitFox is in no mood to hang around.

"We're in the sweet spot of the market. We bet on the right market and the synergy of our companies means we can operate faster than the competition," Beckers argues, citing HitFox's decision to shift its business from browser games affiliate networks to mobile games ahead of the core German browser game publishers.

He says AppLift is a prime example of this strategy, as the platform was kickstarted by ad2games' existing business, enabling it to grow extremely quickly.

Indeed, despite only launching in August 2012, AppLift now offers the potential for up to 10,000 non-incentivised game installs daily in each the biggest territories. More generally it's operating in 30 countries.

And the market is still early, Beckers enthuses.

"There's competition in the US, but it's not that crowded," he ends.

"We're in the sweet spot and we have strong trust with partners such as Nexon, EA and King.com. In my opinion, there can not be too much growth."