SAN FRANCISCO: A focus on games could be Google Inc’s ticket to entering the social networking arena, as the Internet giant seeks to overcome a string of lackluster initiatives that have left it on the sidelines of the booming market.
Although Facebook lords over social networking, industry insiders say Google is well-positioned to play a bigger role by wooing developers of games hungry for alternative venues.
Google is looking for talent to head up this nascent drive, and seeking to partner with gaming giants keen to work off Google’s huge Web presence to get into social gaming, industry insiders say. Electronic Arts and Walt Disney Co have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to bankroll a foray into the market, and more are waiting in the wings.
“It’s clear that a lot of social gaming companies would love to have more than Facebook,” said Norwest Venture Partners principal Timothy Chang, an investor in Playdom, the social game company by Disney paid $563 million for last month.
Social games that are free to play are one of the most popular activities on Facebook. Games such as Zynga’s FarmVille invite users to interact with each other by buying imaginary land, growing crops and expanding their farms. The games generate revenue through the sale of virtual goods or services.
In the wake of recent changes by Facebook that made it more difficult for game companies to do business on its 500 million-member social network, Chang and others say that game firms are increasingly interested in hearing what Google has to offer.
The Web search leader is already increasing its presence in the social game industry.
“You see them everywhere, at all the conferences that are out there. We know they are searching for people to lead their games unit,” said Net Jacobsson, a former Facebook executive who now runs a social game firm called PlayHopper.
“All developers are anticipating Google getting into social gaming,” Jacobsson added. “But we are all kind of wary of will it actually work, because gaming has nothing to do with Google’s core business, which is search.”
Google has struggled to find the right touch in the burgeoning social media sector. Two recent high-profile social products, Google Buzz and Google Wave, have flopped, say analysts. On Wednesday, the company officially declared Wave’s demise, saying it will no longer continue developing the online multi-communication tool as a standalone product, though it will keep the site running at least till end-2010.
And Orkut, Google’s early online social network, has failed to catch on outside of Brazil and India.