There are huge numbers of games on Facebook, but Helsinki startup Frosmo, hopes it can grab some attention amid all the noise by doing something a bit different. The company will provide a tournament and prize-based social gaming service on Facebook.
The company, started in 2008, makes infrastructure for staging tournaments in casual games. It has created a white-label service that is used by 30 partners, including major portals in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Now the company will do the same under its own brand name on Facebook.
The company’s app will be like a game portal embedded within Facebook, said Mikael Gummerus, chief executive of Frosmo, in an interview. Players will be able to play 70 Flash-based games on the portal. Those games have been created by independent developers who are looking to monetize their games. Tournaments generate revenue, and Frosmo shares that with the games’ developers. Depending on the region, Frosmo gives away money or prizes to tournament winners.
Frosmo holds the 70 games together by infusing them with a meta game, where you level up and progress through ages, from the Stone Age to the modern age. Players have to work together to make progress.
“We create a social game around the games,” Gummerus said.
Players can watch their overall Frosmo rank increase as they play more games and share experiences with friends. Gamers can play the Frosmo-based games by logging into their favorite Internet portals, on Frosmo.com using Facebook Connect, or through the new Facebook app, which goes live today.
Frosmo gamers can team up and interact with each other while they play. They can progress through the ranks as a team, and the team rises in rank based on how well the gamers play. Frosmo has its own virtual currency, known as Frollars, which players can win in the tournaments or purchase with real money. Users can also upgrade to premium accounts.
The company signed up its first white-label commercial service partner, MTV 3 Finland, in May 2008. It also provides tournament services for China.com, which has 10 million unique monthly visitors; Yahoo Middle East (formerly Maktoob) with 15 million visitors; Sanook.com, Thailand’s largest Internet portal with 5 million visitors; and Ekolay, a Turkish site with 3 million visitors. Frosmo’s service now has 3 million gamers worldwide, and the company is betting it can grow to 15 million gamers by the end of 2010.
Frosmo has 25 employees, and it competes with the likes of Zynga, Playfish and a host of casual game sites. Its investors include Riistos Silasmaa, a member of Nokia’s board. It raised 1.4 million euros from the Finnish government and has also raised two rounds of angel money.
Before founding Frosmo, Gummerus was managing director of E-Sports Nordic. But he spun Frosmo out of that company once he saw its potential. Rivals include Mind Jolt, which has 14 million unique monthly visitors.