Mobile social network Mig33 launches game developer platform

Mobile social network Mig33 is launching a program for game developers to create games for its platform that reaches more than 50 million users..

The Singapore-based company has millions of users for its feature-phone-based mobile social network in territories such as Africa and Indonesia. Now it has established a way for game developers to create games that can be played in all of its territories, all in the name of creating a lucrative virtual economy. The games can also be played on phones that use the social networks of Mig33’s key partner, Japan’s Gree.

Mieg33 first announced the switch to mobile social games in November and is now executing on that plan.

Naoki Aoyagi, CEO of Gree International, said in an interview that Mig33 is strategic because it has an opportunity to bring mobile social networking and games to the rest of the world, beyond established markets such as Europe, Japan and the U.S.

“That’s why we invested in them,” he said. “It is how the reach of mobile platforms can eventually reach billions of users.”

Developers can now create games that run on the more than 800 mobile carriers across Asia and other territories. The idea is to take social games like those enjoyed in Japan and the West to countries where mobile phones are the user’s only way of accessing the internet.

Mig33 has a dozen mobile game developers that are adopting its platform. Those developers can create games for the emerging markets around the globe that Mig33 is addressing with its mobile social network, which now has tens of millions of registered users.

Mig33 has evolved over time and found that virtual goods are one of the most popular things users buy on its social network. More than 40 million virtual goods were purchased on Mig33’s network in 2010. So the company is now getting developers to create the games and social apps that spur further demand for those virtual good.

One subset of the Mig33 developer program is the company’s social platform, which will expand dramatically over the next several months. That social platform leverages the applications programming interface created by Gree, which is allied not only with Mig33 but also with China’s Tencent.

The announcement is being made by Daisuke Kobayashi, director and head of international alliances at Gree, and Steven Goh, CEO and co-founder of Mig33.

“It’s a mobile developers dream,” said Goh, in a statement. “In just the past two years, Mig33 has almost doubled in size, forged partnerships with developers, retailers and more, and has allied with handset makers across Asia and beyond.”

The game developers include:

• Kooky Panda (http://www.kookypanda.com/) China
• Softgames (http://www.softgames.de/) Germany
• Nazara (http://www.nazara.com/) India
• Agate (http://www.agategames.com) Indonesia
• Anantarupa (http://www.anantarupa.com/) Indonesia
• Elasitas (http://www.elasitas.com/) Indonesia
• Nightspade (http://www.nightspade.com/) Indonesia
• Oneb1t Solutions (http://www.onebitmedia.com/) Indonesia
• Indigo Entertainment (http://www.indigo-entertainment.com) Philippines
• The Mobile Gamer (http://www.tmgamer.co/) Singapore
• Blue Leaf Games (http://www.blueleafgames.com/) South Africa
• Springfisher (http://www.blueleafgames.com/) South Africa

Mig33 was founded in late 2005 and is backed by Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, DCM and Gree.