Kabam’s No. 2 exec explores the ins-and-outs of monetizing mobile games

The top companies make it look easy, but monetizing mobile games is a complicated beast. One of those that has managed to do this well so far — moving from social games on Facebook to mobile games on iOS and Android — is San Francisco’s Kabam.

In just five years, it has grown to more than 900 employees, and it recently raised $120 million from China’s Internet giant, Alibaba, in a deal that valued Kabam at more than $1 billion. Kabam said the company is targeting $500 million in revenues, compared to $360 million in 2013. Part of the way it will do that is by creating more games based on movie intellectual properties. The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth has generated more than $100 million in revenue for Kabam, and it is working on properties such as The Hunger Games and Fast and Furious.