Earlier this year wooga CEO Jens Begemann gave a presentation at the Casual Connect conference in Seattle. The topic is “How to be social in Europe” and focuses on our localization efforts. A high quality video recording of the presentation can be found here:

wooga Casual Connect Presentation

Berlin, den 26. August 2010

Liebe Fans von wooga,

Erst vor gut einem Jahr haben wir unser erstes Spiel Brain Buddies auf Facebook veröffentlicht.

Und heute feiern wir einen großartigen Meilenstein, nämlich über 10 Millionen aktive Nutzer (Monthly Active User; MAU) auf Facebook für unsere drei Spiele Brain Buddies, Bubble Island und Monster World.

Damit sind wir der achtgrößte Social Games Entwickler weltweit und der größte aus Europa:
woo.ga/Top-Devs (Nr. 1 bis 7 auf dieser Liste sitzen an der Westküste der USA)

Beim Rückblick auf die vergangenen zwölf Monate sind wir sehr stolz auf das Erreichte:

• Wir sind von 0 auf über 10 Millionen MAU gewachsen – und das obwohl wir nur 3% unserer Nutzer über Werbung gewonnen haben
• Die herausragende Qualität unserer Spiele ist weltweit anerkannt, zuletzt durch den Gewinn des European Games Award für “Best Social Game”
• Als einziger Facebook Spieleentwickler lokalisieren wir all unsere Spiele vollständig (inkl. Fan-Seiten, lokalen virtuellen Gütern und Kundenservice)
• Bubble Island war ein herausragender Erfolg: Wir haben es im Frühjahr 2010 gestartet, nachdem Facebook die Viralität auf der Plattform eingeschränkt hatte. Inzwischen ist es das wohl erfolgreichste Facebook-Spiel 2010, was nicht von einem der etablierten Top-5 Anbieter stammt
• Über 250 Millionen Gehirntests wurden auf Brain Buddies gespielt, dem am besten bewerteten und erfolgreichsten Gehirnjogging-Spiel auf Facebook mit einer extrem loyalen Fangemeinde
• Monster World wächst stetig und hat seine Nutzerzahl während der letzten 30 Tage verdoppelt, auf jetzt 2.7 Millionen MAU. Monster World ist das einzige Facebook-Spiel mit “Farming” Spielprinzip das wächst

In unserem Büro geht man durch das "Bubble Island-Tor"

Und nicht nur unsere Spiele sind gewachsen. Vor einem Jahr bestand wooga aus einem kleinen Team in einem Berliner Hinterhof. Heute erschaffen 50 Mitarbeiter aus 12 Ländern in der Berliner “Backfabrik” die besten Social Games weltweit. Wir wachsen rasant und sind auf der Suche nach neuen Kollegen: wooga.com/jobs

Ich freue mich darauf, Euch in den nächsten 12 Monaten weitere tolle Spielerlebnisse zu bieten,

Jens
Gründer & CEO, wooga

P.S.: “Spiel Vier” ist zur Zeit im Beta-Test und wir werden in Kürze das Geheimnis lüften.

Berlin – August 26, 2010

Dear fans of wooga,

Just one short year ago we launched our first game, Brain Buddies, on Facebook.

Today we celebrate a huge milestone. There are now 10 million monthly active users (MAU) on Facebook playing our three games: Brain Buddies, Bubble Island and Monster World.

This makes us the 8th largest social games developer worldwide and the largest from Europe: woo.ga/TopDevs (No. 1 to 7 on this list are from the west coast of the US)

Looking back on the past twelve months we are very proud of our accomplishments:

• We grew organically from 0 to over 10 million MAU, with only 3% of our users joining through advertising
• The superb quality of our games is widely recognized, most recently by winning the European games award for Best Social Game
• We are the only Facebook developer doing full localization (fan pages, local virtual goods, customer care) of our games.
• Bubble Island has seen tremendous success. Launched after the removal of notifications in Spring 2010 it is arguably the most successful game from a non-incumbent top 5 games developer in 2010.
• More than 250 million brain tests have been made by Brain Buddies, the highest rated and most successful brain training game on Facebook with many extremely loyal (and hardcore!) fans.
• Monster World is showing very healthy growth and has doubled its user-base during the last 30 days to 2.7 million MAU. Monster World is the only farming-principle game on Facebook which is growing.

In our office we turned a large door into Bubble Island

Not only have our games grown – just one year ago wooga was a small handful of people working in a backyard. Today we have an amazing team of 50 people from 12 countries working hard out of cool offices in an old baking factory in Berlin to create the best social games in the world. We are expanding quickly and looking for new colleagues: wooga.com/jobs

I look forward to delivering more fun gameplay to you in the next 12 months,

Jens
Founder & CEO wooga

P.S.: “Game four” is in closed beta and we will announce and launch it soon.

Christopher Parschat & John Hargelid receive the European Games Award photo credit: Aruba Events and photographer: Carsten Klask

The European Games Award (http://www.european-games-award.com/) was awarded this weekend in Cologne, Germany, as part of Gamescom, the world’s largest games event with ca. 250,000 visitors per year.

Bubble Island won against strong competition such as EA Sports FIFA Superstars from EA-Playfish. The award was accepted by Bubble-Island creator Christopher Parschat (left on the photo) and Creative Producer John Hargelid (right).

In parallel we have rolled-out a completely new game mode for Bubble Island:

Level of the Week

This new game mode challenges users to get a high-score within 60 seconds.

For Bubble Island, this is the most important update to the game since it launched on February 1st, 2010. We have spent several months fine-tuning this for the best possible experience and initial user feedback is tremendous. Overall Bubble Island usage has increased already by 40% in just 3 short days!

Bubble Island is now played by 5 million users every month and they spent 1 billion minutes playing it – per month.

Here is a short video introducing the new gameplay mode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv_zjJe71LU

More about wooga & our games on Facebook: facebook.com/wooga

For the complete article please visit Inside Facebook:
http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2010/07/29/how-to-localize-games-an-interview-with-european-developer-wooga/

For the complete article please visit Inside Facebook:
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/07/23/wooga-becomes-the-fourth-large-developer-to-use-facebook-credits-exclusively/

German trade publication Making Games Magazine has a six-page cover story about wooga this month. Founder and CEO Jens Begemann is interviewed and offers opinions and best practice “rules” for developing high-quality games in the social sphere.

Here is a PDF copy of the article:
Mythen und Wahrheiten Die 10 goldenen Social Game Regeln
(In German)

You can find the article and video interview here:
“Wir wollen kein deutsches StartUp sein” – Interview mit wooga-CEO Jens Begemann
(only available in German)

This latest investment will allow wooga to hire new talent, continue to develop top quality games and grow the company further. Roberto Bonanzinga, Partner at Balderton Capital, will also join the board of wooga.

Founded in January 2009, wooga (a contraction of “world of gaming”) develops games for social networks. Its first game, Brain Buddies, was released on Facebook in July 2009 and is currently one of the top 20 games on the Facebook platform with 6 million monthly users.

Roberto Bonanzinga, Partner at Balderton Capital, said: “wooga is a great early stage company, the kind of company Balderton loves to invest in. wooga has a dynamic and experienced management team, led by founder Jens Begemann, and it is based in Berlin, one of Europe’s most creative cities. Social gaming on sites such as Facebook is a key growth sector right now. We have full confidence in Jens’ ability to build a world-class team and look forward to working with wooga to expand its market further and build a global business.”

Dr. Lars Langusch, Partner at Holtzbrinck Ventures, said: “Since our initial investment in wooga a few months ago, the company has established itself as one of the top games developers for the Facebook platform. We are confident that wooga will continue to exceed our expectations.”

Jens Begemann, founder and CEO of wooga, said: “We are proud to have Balderton, one of the world’s leading investors in social media and gaming, as our new partner. We also welcome further funding from Holtzbrinck, which provides a vote of confidence in wooga and its future growth prospects. wooga focuses on offering a quality user experience that provides a safe, rewarding gaming experience. By providing true value in social gaming, we believe wooga can achieve sustained long-term growth. This investment will allow us to hire more talented people in the coming weeks and months.”

wooga currently has a staff of 25 from 9 countries. Job opportunities at wooga can be found at wooga.net/jobs.

About wooga

wooga (world of gaming) was founded in January 2009. wooga develops games for social networks like Facebook. Its first game Brain Buddies was released on Facebook in July 2009 and is currently one of the top 20 games on the Facebook platform with 6 million monthly users. wooga has two new games in late stage development that are due for release in the coming weeks. wooga has 25 employees from 9 countries and has been nominated for a German “Start-up of the year” award in 2009.

About Balderton Capital

Balderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital.

Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Balderton’s investments span a wide variety of sectors including communications, consumer services, enterprise software and services, e-commerce, mobile, semiconductors, media and financial services.

Balderton invests in innovative businesses and approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The investment partners combine international and Silicon Valley operational experience with company-building expertise.

Notable investments include Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), ScanSafe (sold to Cisco Systems for $183m), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service) and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion). For more information, visit: www.balderton.com.

About Holtzbrinck Ventures

Holtzbrinck Ventures was founded in 2000 and specializes on early stage investments in companies working in the internet, mobile and new media industry. Their portfolio includes companies like Parship, GameDuell, MyHammer, and StudiVZ.

Berlin, 12th November 2009

Brain Buddies is available in 8 different languages and this has turned into the key element to reach users from all over the planet including all the countries of the United Nations. For example Brain Buddies has users from Afghanistan, Iraq and even Palau, a small island in the South Pacific.

“We are really proud that we have grown so widely around the world, reaching users with different cultures, religions, political views, ages and genders”, says founder and managing director Jens Begemann.”We want to continue creating new games that everybody can play, taking advantage of what social media has to offer”.

As Brain Buddies has reached five million monthly active users, the team launched the contest “Name the Professor” in which all users can suggest a name for the main character of the game. Everybody can vote for their favorite name from the ten finalists until September 28th.

wooga (www.wooga.net) – which stands for “world of gaming” – was founded in January 2009 in Berlin by experienced entrepreneurs (e.g. Jamster). wooga develops and markets games for social networks like Facebook. These so-called “social games” combine the two biggest current online trends: online games and social networks.

Berlin, 21st September 2009