I talked with Papaya Mobile’s CEO, Shen Si, last week. She graduated from Tsinghua University studying computer science. Then, she went to the U.S., studied computer science and management. And later, she joined Google. Before she left, she was with Google China, responsible for its development in mobile.
In 2008, iPhone became very popular. The new platform attracted Shen Si’s attention and she believed it was time to form her own company – Papaya Mobile. The aim is to develop social game on mobile phone and iPhone is the perfect platform.
So far the Beijing based company has about 40 people. In the last 2-3 years, they built over 10 social games over iPhone. Papaya Mobile has a version of all the hit games on Zynga. There are over 10 million registered users for their games. Most the users are from the U.S., Western Europe, Canada, Australia, etc. APRU of its users can reach US$30 per month.
“In 2008, the most ready mobile platform for game developers is iPhone. Therefore, most of our users are from overseas,” said Shen Si.
Starting from last year, the mobile development in China is getting intense. Shen Si is thinking of focusing her attention back to China.
In the second half of last year, they started to build a social network on mobile , and opened it for third parties games and applications. “It is like Facebook, but with LBS (location based services),” said Shen Si. It is Android based, but will have iPhone extension. So far it has over 200 third party app.
“Profit is not most important at current stage. We focus on growing our user base,” said Shen Si.
Shen Si is not alone. Everyone in the mobile internet sector is thinking along the same line. Good news for people with an Android phone. There will be even more freebies on your phones.
Leave a comment