Mobile application based community network, Mig33, has launched a developer program for creating social games on the platform. The company had started creating games in-house with 9-12 titles, initially. It’s now offering close to 25 games following a tie-up with 20 developers. In addition to developers from Singapore, Indonesia and other Asian countries, Games2Win is also working as part of the program. It had recently launched a Bollywood quiz through KoiMoi.com. A tie-up with Nazara* is also at the conceptualization stage.

Developer Program: While Mig33 also offers an Android app, the program is mainly focused on app development on the Java J2ME platform, although, it might also open up for Android at a later stage, informed Mahip Vyas, Country Manager(India) for Mig33. The games involve elements like virtual goods and currency, and paid game levels, to enable monetization. Interestingly, the revenue share arrangement is skewed in favour of the developer, according to Vyas, at 70% of the total revenue. He added that there is no joining fee and the company offers support through a technical team located at Kuala Lumpur, in addition to documentation and APIs.

Our Take: It’s not new for platforms to open up for developers, so as to expand their product offering, and save in-house development cost. Earlier, Ibibo had launched its game developer platform, ibibo Open, for developers to make social and multiplayer games on ibibo targeting Indian audiences, offering distribution and monetization. We witnessed the transformation of Ibibo from a social network to a gaming network. It would be interesting to see if Mig33 also chooses to follow the same path, as mainstream social networks such as Facebook and Twitter expand.

With Facebook and Twitter becoming closely integrated with mobile, and launching apps for even feature phones, mobile-only social networks, might see their user base shrinking.  However, Vyas said that the target audience for mig33 was different, since it offers more anonymity and lets users who don’t have an existing network of friends expand their social presence.

300,000 Active Game Users: Although he did not reveal the number of players who actually start paying within games, Vyas said that the conversion rate was good, and that a lot of games involved things like paying a certain amount to unlock new levels, which made more users pay. According to him, around 300,000 Mig33 users have started playing games, across all geographies.

Mig33 has 55 million registered users, however, the company refused to reveal the number of monthly and daily active users. Geographically, India is among the top 3 markets, according to Vyas, but is not the number one market- Indonesia is the largest market for Mig33.  He also informed that the platform is witnessing growth from markets such as the Middle East and Africa. The company did not disclose the number of Indian users, separately.

On Indic language support, he said that the platform is already available in Hindi, and offers India related virtual goods and avatars for users. However, Mig33 is looking at games that have a global appeal under the developer program. On being asked if the company is in plans to tie-up with advertisers for specific campaigns, Vyas responded that it’s under consideration for the Indian market, although it does have such tie-ups in other markets. Update: Mig33 has recently inked a tie-up with the Delhi IPL franchise, Delhi Daredevils. The company says that it expects to tie-up with more brands interested in similar partnerships.

 * Disclosure: Nazara is an advertiser with MediaNama