Five Friday Facts #31
News
News
DeNA brings social gaming to Renren
Japanese mobile social gaming company DeNA has extended its reach and visibility in China after it announced a partnership with Chinese social networking site Renren that will see its social games included in Renren’s Android app. A dedicated section has been created for DeNA’s Mobage platform within the Renren Android app, which users can conveniently log-in to with their Renren IDs to access and play any of the near-40 titles that DeNA offers in China. According to Renren, there are currently 154 million active users on its social network, which makes this partnership a considerable opportunity for DeNA to assert its presence in China to better compete against rival GREE.
GREE acquires Korean social gaming company Paprika Labs
In more social gaming news, Japanese mobile social gaming network GREE has acquired Korean social game developer Paprika Lab for an undisclosed sum, after having just purchased US-based social game developer Funzio for US$210 million or S$269 million last month. GREE will incorporate Paprika Lab’s social gaming portfolio into its existing ‘GREE Platform‘, including the popular Facebook game HeroCity which sees more than 150 million monthy active users.
Singapore marketers’ attitudes towards social media
Research from Experian Marketing Services reveal that marketers recognise the importance of social media, even though 78% of marketers surveyed believe that the company website is still the most important source from which consumers find information about the brand or its product. Reassuringly, social media channels are the second most important source of information at 57%.
95% of Singapore marketers surveyed also ranked social media as ‘highly effective’ or ‘effective’ at delivering the best return on investment (ROI), while 89% felt similarly towards online advertising. Despite marketers’ recognition of social media’s ROI, 63% reported that they had previously invested in a new digital approach that did not deliver this anticipated ROI. This was most pertinent among online/digital companies at 74%, and financial companies at 68%. The key reasons for the failure were identified as the lack of understanding of the target audience, which 26% of marketers admitted as such, while 23% pinned the reason down to the channel itself. There’s still some way to go for marketers to understand both the behaviour of their consumers on social media, and how to best utilise the channels themselves to engage their audiences.
Social networking habits of Android smartphone users in India
Social networking is one of the top activities for smartphone users in India, and Nielsen Informate has uncovered some social networking usage habits of Android smartphone users in India. An astounding 93% of Android smartphone users in India access social networking sites on their smartphones, with 86% of users accessing apps and 66% accessing websites. There’s no surprise that Facebook leads the list of top-ranked social networks with 88% reach, but surprisingly Google+ comes in second, albeit a far second with 17% reach. 1 in 3 Facebook users do not use any other social networking property, which is a testament to its popularity in India indeed. Most tellingly, Android smartphone users access the Facebook app 17 days a month as opposed to its website, which users access only 9 days out of a month.
Facebook engagement declines
According to a poll conducted among 1,032 Americans by Reuters and research firm Ipsos, Facebook users are spending less time on the site as compared to 6 months ago. 34% of Facebook users spend less time on the site and 35% said they are less engaged on the social network than before, with only 20% of those surveyed spending more time on the site. The study also found that 4 out of 5 Facebook members have never been influenced by ads running on the site, which indicates that the ad products Facebook has been promoting so vigorously may not be working as well as they would hope.