HI5 President: Facebook gaming business will suffer defeat

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According to foreign media reports, a recent social networking site HI5 President Alex Saint-Hens John (Alex St.John) in the Financial Times, said the world's largest gaming platform, Facebook will inevitably fail in the game area.

John was the chief executive of WildTangent, a well-known foreign gaming operator, who joined Hi5 last December. In an interview, John also said that Zynga, the biggest and most successful game publisher on Facebook, is facing serious challenges.

John told the Financial Times that Facebook is showing signs that the company is committing the same mistakes Yahoo had made in casual gaming. "WildTangent, Real NX and Big Fish (all dedicated to casual gaming services) are grateful for Yahoo's mistakes in the gaming business and have given them a large audience," he said. Facebook will make the same mistake. ”

The outspoken president believes that Yahoo was once the biggest platform for casual gaming, but was not able to exploit the gaming business at the time, because Yahoo did not see it as one of its core businesses. Due to Yahoo's lack of focus on the business, the number of players and the growing revenue is slowly eroded by companies specializing in casual gaming businesses. John said: "There are still some old ladies on Yahoo's website playing chess, but the site is not professional, and the income is of course very few."

Similarly, Facebook will make the same mistake because it wants to be a pervasive social networking site and lacks proper attention to the game business, making it possible for more specialized gaming companies like Hi5 to launch successful games.

HI5 's current business focus is gaming and entertainment, and John's 6 months in office played a key role in the company's transition from a general social networking site to a professional gaming company.

John also predicts that Facebook's social game, which attracts millions of of players every day, will eventually die. He points out that these social games are so popular not because they are good games, but because they are sticky and take advantage of the social relationships between players. "For the first generation of gangster wars and farm games, they only have user stickiness and lack substance, so these games will soon disappear." "He thinks Zynga will be hard-pressed to expand Farmville because the game lacks such substance.

John says Facebook and its developers have failed to make the right use of social gaming. "Zynga and Facebook executives have only captured the naïve part of the online business model," he said. The business platform I built in WildTangent a decade ahead of them in sophistication and gameplay. Results are about to be presented, and we will show social media how to make a profit from these games. ”

John worked as head of Microsoft's gaming business and increased the number of WildTangent's monthly independent user visits to 30 million, then became president of Hi5 last December. The company currently has 50 million per month access to independent users, most of which come from countries and regions outside the United States. The company's Web site has replicated Facebook's application interface (API), so developers can easily upload their games to Hi5, which also provides developers with free marketing and promotional activities to increase the number of games on the site.

John says it is a very simple model to persuade consumers to buy a 20 dollar Facebook credit coin. Casual gaming companies have developed a comprehensive portfolio that integrates the sale of virtual goods with affiliate programs to provide 3, 6, or 12 months of contract deals. Only a small portion of the sales of single player games. "Facebook is really not a business or gaming company, and developers can't use a combination business model because they rely on Facebook and can't control the user's experience," says John. ”

"From now on, Zynga is likely to face a difficult period," he predicts. He points out that Facebook lacks the effort to help increase the number of gamers in its service. "Zynga has to think about how to separate itself from Facebook, and the company must learn to use social relationships." Zynga has to create a new kind of game that no longer relies on social relationships but makes itself social, but it's very difficult. ”