Facebook gaming platform Boom is fading

The prosperity of Facebook's gaming platform appears to be fading, the Forbes website reported in Saturday.

' The number of Facebook gamers has stabilized in 2011 after two years of rapid growth, ' said IHS, a marketing research firm. By the end of 2010, about 50% of Facebook's monthly active users were gamers. By the end of 2011, the absolute value had not changed much, but the percentage of active users participating in the game had fallen to 25%.

The article also notes that the number of Zynga active users fell to 225 million in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with 266 million in the third quarter.

Steve Bailey, IHS analyst, points out that the Facebook gaming platform has grown rapidly in the 2009 and 2010. However, the 2011-Year development of the market has not increased and entered a mature state. For game operators, the situation is clearly becoming more challenging, though Facebook remains a great platform for gaming companies to meet these challenges. But in 2012 the outlook for the platform will look bleak compared with the optimism of the past few years.

Bailey lists the reasons why social games are in trouble:

Getting users is harder: As more carriers scramble for user attention, and as users ' expectations rise, so does the cost of getting users. The viral propaganda channels for users are not as rich as they used to be, so cross-selling networks or direct advertising becomes necessary.

There are more options for user participation: The second challenge for Facebook is intense market competition, which means that user involvement will be under pressure. Looking back over 2011 years, the trend is to get deep user participation from the most accessible type of game to the type of game that requires skill or energy.

Facebook is a "non-expert game" game: In addition to competing with other game operators, companies competing on the Facebook platform must also draw attention through non gaming capabilities.

Bailey concludes that the honeymoon period for social gaming is over. He said there is no doubt that Facebook will remain strong in the game's competitive landscape, but the pattern has entered a new multi-channel and cross-platform model.

Facebook has adopted a variety of initiatives to improve the platform for game operators, such as the launch of the Mobile Apps Development Kit (SDK) at the end of 2011. Facebook will continue to improve gaming platforms in 2012, but the challenges will remain.