Mobile social game developer FunPlus secured $74 million of Series B financing from Orchid Asia, SteamBoat Ventures, and existing investor GSR Ventures, raising the company’s total capital received to more than $87 million together with the $13 million Series A funding gained in 2012.
The fund raised this round will be injected in marketing and recruitment of excellent game designers and developers, said Andy Zhong, CEO and co-founder of the company.
FunPlus eyes global market since the very beginning of its establishment in 2010. Although the company is yet to be a familiar name to Chinese players, it has earned its credit as the largest Asia social gaming vendor in terms of daily active users on Facebook platform.
The company’s signature games are Family Farm which claims over 4 million daily active users, Royal Story, Fantasy Slots, three games that are available on Facebook platform, as well as Family Farm Seaside, a social game on iOS, Google Play and Amazon platforms. FunPlus’s games are all free-to-play and the company gains profits by selling virtual goods.
FunPlus now claims more than 6 million daily active users as of present, mainly from European and North American markets, which account for 55% and 40% of the company’s total revenue respectively, disclosed Dan Fiden, CSO of the firm. He adds that company’s annual revenue is expected to reach 175 million to 219 million dollars in 2014, while its ARPDAU stands at around 0.1 dollar. The company planned to release 2-3 new games in 2014.
FunPlus was co-founded by three experienced entrepreneurs: Andy Zhong (CEO) is the head of the developer team behind Birthday Cards and Zoo World, two popular apps on Facebook platform; Guan Yitao (CTO) is a software architect once worked in tech companies like Ask.com, Yousendit.com and IBM; Chen Qi (COO) is the former CEO at Spil Games Asia and founder of social networking site 360Quan. FunPlus has over 200 employees and is headquartered in Beijing, with offices in San Francisco and Vancouver.
image credit: FunPlus
Family Farm game did not say to “unlock” the expansion. It said (right where the price is on the small yard expansion) “get ten neighbors”, Witch I did and it cleared the offer. The next day the offer came back and it said I had to pay coins. If it had said to unlock the expansion I would not have went through all the trouble to get 10 neighbors so fast. If it got posted wrong that is not my fault. I did what it said to do to get the expansion.
I am not new to these games. I have played Farmville by Zynga for several years. I have never had a complaint. After playing it for a while I bought farm cash and used it to build and expand my farm. Do you know why I did that? Because they gained my trust. I have enough confidence in them to purchase farm cash. If people are not comfortable with your integrity to your customers they will not be comfortable spending real money on your game. Also the word will spread how you treat fellow gamers. There are lots of farm games out there. We have choices. It is up to you to prove yourself worthy of us or not worthy of us. It all comes down to integrity, standing behind your product, and delivering what you promise. The decision is totally up to you. What kind of reputation do you want Funplus to have? How succesfull do you want Funplus to be?
This game will absolutely cheat you out of expansions and stuf you earn, And tek support will do nothing to fix it. Don’t invest cash in this game. It is a big waste of time. Farmville is WAY better. Go ZyNGA!!!!!!