Stocks & Investing
Stocks and Investing
Stocks and Investing
Wed, July 21, 2010
Tue, July 20, 2010 Idle Media, Inc. Continues Acquisition Spree and Expands Demographic Reach
LEESPORT, PA--(Marketwire - July 20, 2010) - [ Idle Media, Inc. ] (
With these acquisitions Idle Media will expand its online presence into new and emerging demographic groups, including the female gamer space, which is growing rapidly, and also to the Twitter platform.
According to Mr. Marcus Frasier, Idle Media Inc.'s President and CEO, "The challenge for companies in the online gaming space is keeping fresh content within their games and launching new ones. This is a challenge we will meet and overcome with our first online gaming acquisition, Prisonblock.com. We plan to bring all we've learned up to this point about online gaming and social media, to the [ Facebook ] platform, with over 400 million users worldwide."
Prison Block already boasts almost 50,000 online users. In Prison Block the online gamer is playing the 'role' of an inmate. The inmate has to survive and thrive in the prison by joining or creating a gang and otherwise maneuvering to stay alive. "Most companies in this space drive revenues by allowing for the purchase of premium items. In Prison Block for example you can buy 'respect' or 'favors' from the warden, which can then be exchanged for items within the game, like a flat screen television for your cell," added Mr. Frasier.
The company plans to launch at least 2 new Facebook games this year, on the heels of its recently acquired [ Backyard Buddies ] social media game. Social media gaming is growing rapidly. Recently, Google announced a $200 million investment in [ Zynga ], billed as the world's largest social gaming developer. "Aside from the games themselves, an entire community has emerged from sites that rank the top games, content sites that offer insight and even developer conferences focused in this genre. We intend to be a player in this space," continued Mr. Frasier.
The company believes that the shifting of users from mainstream video games to social network games is a major developing trend. [ Inside Network ] estimates the US virtual goods market will reach US $1.6 billion in 2010 and the social gaming market will contribute $835 million of that total. And, according to research and asset management company [ Think Equity ], the U.S. market for social network games will reach over US $2 billion by 2012. There are over 45 million social gamers in the U.S., with 25% saying their social network is their primary gaming destination.
"There is huge unrealized market potential in social media for companies like Idle Media," stated Mr. Frasier. "We believe that social game developers like us will continue to focus on producing their titles for Facebook, due to its growth and monetization potential. Just look at games like [ NightClub City ], which launched on Facebook in April of this year and already has 4.5 million users. These types of applications have massive revenue potential if exploited correctly."
The company is also tapping the mobile device market by bringing its website content to iPhone/iPod Touch, Palm Pre/Pixi and Android devices, allowing users to stream, view, search, comment and rate content on the go.
Mobile social network market growth is being fueled by a surge in mobile phones, wider coverage of 3G and now 4G networks, and affordable data plans. The rising popularity of smartphones incorporating multimedia capabilities and the surfacing of new distribution channels including Google's Android and Apple's App Store, have significantly expanded the market for mobile content services.
According to research firm Gartner, worldwide mobile game revenue is expected to grow 19% in 2010, reaching $5.6 billion, with an expectation to more than double to $11.4 billion in 2014. And, according to Visiongain, the revenue from mobile social networking and user generated content will grow to around $60 billion in 2012.
About Idle Media, Inc.
Idle Media, Inc. is a publicly traded new media technology company that delivers cutting-edge content and online gaming through its wholly-owned operating companies, including Dat Piff ([ www.datpiff.com ]), a leading provider of online mix tapes and user-generated content.
Learn more about Idle Media, Inc. at: [ http://www.idlemedia.com ]. Follow Idle Media on [ Facebook ] and [ Twitter ].
Information in this press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements may include our future operations, financial condition and prospects and business strategies. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in this press release or in other documents including those filed with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
