Social networking site Ibibo has launched its game developer platform, ibibo Open, for developers to make social and multiplayer games on ibibo targeting Indian audiences. The company intends to aggressively promote the platform to local and international game developers to develop, publish, and monetize their games on its platform. Recently, mobile social network Mig33 also opened its platform for gaming. Ibibo's expansion in this direction is not a co-incidence. Tencent, which has a minority stake in MIH India (which owns Ibibo) and has the option to acquire half the company, is one of the worlds largest massively multiplayer online gaming platforms, and has a thriving virtual goods economy. In the first quarter of 2011 itself, online gaming accounted for RMB 3572.7 (around $500 million) for Tencent. According to the company, five game developers have already launched their games, namely Howzatt cricket from Game Ventures, Singapore ; Tower Of Babel by Kingnet, China ; Junkyard Mahem by Games2Win fromIndia ; ForestStory by Perfect World Studios, China and Pet Story by Plinga, Germany. Besides these, ten more international game development companies, who according to the company are the biggest names in the international market, have signed up on the platform and will be releasing their games in the next 2 months. Undoubtedly, Ibibo's relationship with Tencent would have helped the company get participation from gaming companies, particularly from China and South East Asia. Monetization & Incentives ibibo says it will provide the following: - Promotion: Ibibo will enable the distribution of new games to the games…
