Social networking + games = social games!

With the motto “I Build, I Bond”, an Indian social gaming site has achived quick user acceptance and popularity, claiming over 5 million unique visitors within a year of its startup.
Introducing the concept of social gaming to Indian internet users, Ibibo ( www.ibibo.com ) offers a choice of role playing multi-player games as well as contests, blogs photo sharing and storage and opinion polls.

The ibibo Farm Game ( www.play.ibibo.com/ibibofarms ) has become a hit with the young and this gaming format is gaining quick traction with online audiences across India. The ibibo Farm Game takes India to its roots where users play the role of farmers. Each user manages and owns a piece of land, grows crops, harvests crops and earns virtual money. Players aspire for the top leader board position within their online social graph and indulge in activities like buying a dog that guards the farm and saves your crops from being stolen….or a hen that lays egg if you feed it and you can sell the eggs to earn more and likewise a cow for milk. Another popular game is the very Indian ‘Teen Patti”

Ibiboi is backed by multi million media conglomerate, Naspers, which has principal operations in electronic media and print media and is headquartered at Cape Town, South Africa. Nasper’s other internet businesses include Tencent and Mail.ru. Tencent operates the brand QQ in China – the dominant Instant Messaging and portal player with more than 80% market share in the country. Mail.ru is ranked as the number one email service for Russian speaking users.
Ibibo is the brain child of its CEO Ashish Kashyap who was earlier India Sales Head at Google and GM e-Commerce IndiaTimes.com 
April 20 2010