Turner eyes growth in social gaming biz

CARTOON NETWORK   BENJAMIN GRUBBS   SOCIAL GAMING

Philippines - Turner will be investing in social gaming across a range of tablets and mobile phones, a key focus for the entertainment media giant in the Philippines in 2012.

According to Benjamin Grubbs (pictured), executive director of interactive, Turner Broadcasting, most of the social games currently in the market cater the youth, however, Turner has seen huge traction with the younger demographic with nearly half a million kids playing online games it recently launched.

"We will continue to tap this segment," he said.

Turner currently owns over 260 online games, a number that is set to grow this year and given the spike in social media usage in the market, Turner's priority in 2012 is to make its content available across multiple devices and on social media platforms.

Its push to drive engagement beyond TV and the PC, coupled with the rise in demand of smartphones and tablets, has already resulted in a seven-fold increase in online traffic coming from mobile in 2012.

Also, iPad is the now number one device, driving online traffic to Turner's online properties this year, replacing the iPhone, which played a dominant role till last year.

Cartoon Network, its flagship children's channel, has close to a million fans from the Philippines on Facebook and almost 20% of Facebook's 1.8m global Ben 10 fans are from Philippines, making it the franchise's top market worldwide.

Also, its Ben 10 Game Generator is the eighth most preferred kids' game in iTunes in the Philippines right now.

"We will continue investing in social gaming in the market (the Philippines) as we have a robust user base here which is the highest amongst all Southeast Asian countries," Grubbs added.

The Philippines is one of the most important markets for Turner in the Southeast Asia region which also houses a team of social media experts to test and develop games and social media strategies for the company to rollout across region as well as in India or even Australia. 

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