Financial Times: rising barriers to social games trigger a takeover battle

Beijing time, May 10, the Financial Times 9th reported that the number of 1 billion dollars are converging to social games.　　Over the past two years, hundreds of small development studios have emerged, creating games, but few big companies have changed, and Zynga and playdom are becoming market monopolies. Since last August, Playdom has bought five companies, including three melons in Buenos Aires (the Argentine capital), a 50-person studio and merscom in Carolina in the southeastern United States. Zynga has also rushed to the battle, swallowing two companies in recent months. Vish Makhijini, Zynga's chief operating officer, said: "Acquisitions are certainly the way we grow, but so far it is mostly for talent rather than market share." "In recent months, the success of social gaming companies has become confusing because it is more difficult to spread the game through viral marketing," he said. Facebook has banned games from providing updates to users.　　To launch a successful game, manufacturers must stand out from the original theme and throw huge ads at Facebook. Playdom chief Financial officer Christa Quarles said: "The virus-type channel has been distorted, some of which have been hit, you have to pay more advertising fees to get the first users."　　"For start-up businesses, Cash is a big hurdle, so many small companies are looking for acquisitions and no longer single-handedly themselves."　　A senior executive at a leading social gaming company said that several small companies had contacted it in recent months in the hope of acquiring it, and that smaller companies were more willing to buy than they had in the past few months. Charles Hade Gang, who sold his company investigative business to Zynga, questioned: "What is the right outcome for these small companies?" Is the future as interesting as it used to be?　　"Last year, the second-biggest game developer, Playfish, entered the social gaming market and spent 400 million of billions of dollars on acquisitions, and then the British company became the second largest social gaming company. The Union will continue to be a mainstream melody in the social gaming circle. (Edit/Zhang Lei)