Kapra's blog

1 milion de cetateni in eRepublik

Nici nu mai stiu de cand joc eRepublik. In primele zile, cum eu veneam dinspre jocurile cu grafica evoluata, eRepublik mi s-a parut extrem de simplist, asa cum li s-a parut si unor amici de-ai mei carora le-am trimis invitatii si care s-au plictisit repede.
Eu intru doar cateva minute pe zi, nu mi-am pus in cap sa ajung parlamentar sau presedintele Romaniei (vorbesc de joc, evident . Muncesc la o companie de constructii, cumpar diverse chestii necesare supravietuirii si lupt in razboaie.

Dincolo de distractie, eRepublik ma intereseaza pentru ca este un revelator foarte bun in privinta retelelor sociale, a comportamentului utilizatorului de internet in interactiunea cu ceilalti. (Sa va mai spun ca spre deosebire de alte popoare din joc, romanii se tin mai ales de scandaluri politice, de acuze si mai putin de constructie/edificare?).
Astazi, George Lemnaru, inventatorul jocului, imi spune ca eRepublik a depasit 1 milion de cetateni inregistrati (fara sa fie integrat in Facebook si fara mari investitii in promovare), dintre care 320.000 il joaca in mod regulat iar dintre acestia jumatate intra zilnic.

eRepublik, finalizat in proportie de 30%, are acum o echipa de 45 de oameni in Irlanda, Spania, Marea Britanie si Romania.
Jocul a fost nominalizat in OnMedia top 100 Winner  ( Categoria Digital Publishers), o selectie internationala a celor mai interesante proiecte din lumea digitala.
Mai multe puteti citi in scriptul interviului video acordat de Alexis Bonte, CEO, co-fondator si investitor in joc. Cititi-l, e interesant.

Desigur ramane problema monetizarii. Chiar George, cum stati din acest punct de vedere?

So Alexis why don’t you tell us who you are and what the big news are?
I’m Alexis Bonte the co-founder and CEO of eRepublik the social strategy games publisher, and we are very excited that eRepublik.com that we launched just over one year ago in tis public version hit on the last days of December 2009 the 1 million registered users milestone, mostly by word of mouth and without any facebook integration and the game is just 30% finished. We also really happy to learn that we have been selected as a AlwaysOn top 100 winner.
What does it mean to eRepublik to be included in the OnMedia 100 list?
Well its really cool especially when you are a European start up to get some recognition and awards. Starting a company in Europe is much harder than in the USA so everything counts and we have been lucky enough in the past to be recognized by LeWeb, FOWA, TechCrunch or the Webby awards and this of course is important not just for the team that now consists of 45 people in Bucharest, Madrid, London and Ireland but also from an industry perspective and it makes our investors happy. 
How is eRepublik today?
Well we has I said we have over 1 million registered users, about 320.000 are active players and over 50% play on a daily basis. So we have a super active user base that has created close to 50.000 newspapers, 40.000 companies and 1000 political parties in the eRepublik world. Our revenues are growing steadily and our main markets are the USA that accounts for about 20% of our revenue, France and the UK, Spain and Eastern Europe. Our users have also created about 400.000 pages of content in the past 6 months and France my native country is down to one region, the rest having been invade by Poland and Spain. Other than that things are going pretty well.
Do you have any comment for eRepublik citizens on upcoming developments for eRepublik?
Yes we will be launching a much more visual and rich military module in a few weeks, this is particularly challenging become some battles in eRepublik have tens of thousands of simultaneous players. We are also working hard on the economical side of things to allow more customization and will be making the first few weeks of eRepublik a much more easy experience for new players as we are loosing to many people in the first few days.
You mentioned eRepublik is not on Facebook, is there a reason for that?
Well eRepublik in its complete form was to complex and deep to be a facebook only game, we have a more ambitious vision for it and we have proven that you can grow and have great user engagement outside of facebook. Also I think that solutions like facebook connect are interesting and done at the right time and in the right way can provide a similar distribution boost and at the same time give you more control of your platform and what you can do with it. So its more a question of timing and control.
If you think about it there have been 3 major waves of change that the web has brought to the games industry.
-       The first one is MMOG games with traditional subscription models such as WOW or Runscape with a focus on RPG
-       At the same time you have had the browser game wave, led by companies like Gameforge and Bigpoint.
-       The third wave, the one that everybody is talking about has been the social games on platforms like facebook that is led by Zynga, playfish and playdom
I think that there is a third wave, a tsunami wave that is really going to transform how games are created and played that is going to emerge in 2010 and explode in 2011 and I’m working on making sure that eRepublik will be at the center of it.
And what will be this tsunami wave like?
Well I’m keeping that undercover for the time being but if you look hard at some of the things we are doing with eRepublik.com you may find a few tips.
 
Thanks Alexis and congratulations on reaching the 1 million registered users milestone.