Socialpoint Explained

Socialpoint
Former Name:Social Point (2008–2019)
Type:Subsidiary
Industry:Video games
Hq Location City:Barcelona
Hq Location Country:Spain
Num Employees:360[1]
Num Employees Year:2018
Parent:Take-Two Interactive (2017–present)

Socialpoint (formerly Social Point until 2019) is a Spanish video game developer based in Barcelona. Founded in October 2008 by Horacio Martos and Andrés Bou, the company specializes in free-to-play mobile and social network games. Socialpoint was acquired by Take-Two Interactive in February 2017.

History

Social Point was founded by Andrés Bou and Horacio Martos in 2008. Between 2008 and 2011, they launched 25 online social games. In January 2011, Social Point released the battle and strategy game Social Empires.

In November 2011, Social Point released Social Wars and a mobile version of Social Empires. On 8 May 2012, they announced the release of Dragon City for Facebook.

In July 2012, Social Point announced it had closed a Series B round of venture capital funding to a total of $10 million. TechCrunch reported that funding for the B.1 round was provided by Nauta Capital, Idinvest Partners, and BBVA bank.[2]

The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya published an article in October 2012 announcing that Social Point was an official collaborator in its master's program in Videogames Design.[3]

Spanish newspaper Expansión printed an article in February 2013, stating that Greylock Partners had invested €2.9 million in Social Point in December 2012.[4]

Social Point announced the releases of iOS and Android versions of Dragon City on 21 March 2013 and 3 July 2013, respectively.[5] In 2014, they launched a new title, Monster Legends, for Facebook, iOS, and Android.

In 2013, Social Point announced its partnership with the mSchools Initiative, a multi-year, multi-faceted education initiative led by the Mobile World Capital Barcelona.[6]

Social Point confirmed that its staff would be involved in mentoring school children as part of the App Education Course element of the initiative: a computer science elective that was offered in Catalan high schools to teach students about application design and prototype development.[7]

In August 2013, VentureBeat named Social Point one of the 20 fastest-growing mobile startups in the world.[8]

According to the company, in 2015 it had a turnover of 85 million euros (50% coming from the United States) and its video games accumulated 180 million downloads.[9]

In January 2016, the company launched a new title, World Chef,[10] and two months later, Dragon Land.[11]

In 2016, it generated $90 million in annual revenue and $20 million in profits according to parent company Take-Two Interactive.[12]

In December 2019, Social Point was rebranded as Socialpoint and introduced a new logo.[13]

Games developed

YearTitlePlatform(s)Ref
AndroidFacebookFire OSiOS
2011Social Empires
Social Wars
2012Dragon City[14]
2013Monster Legends
Jurassic Hunter
2016World Chef
Dragon Land
2019Tasty Town[15]
Word Life[16]
2023Top Troops[17]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Social Point - Lessons from building a game start-up and being acquired (Chartboost Dev House) . Chartboost . 2 April 2018 . . 31 August 2018.
  2. News: Wauters . Robin . Social games developer Social Point raises €2.4 million . 22 August 2013 . TechCrunch.
  3. Web site: Social Point Collaborator in Master in Videogames Finalist in Emprendedor XXI. 22 August 2013. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
  4. News: Díaz . Tina . La "start up" Social Point eleva su financiación hasta once millones . 22 August 2013 . Expansión . 12 February 2013 . es.
  5. Web site: Dragon City Game by Social Point Reaches Broadest User Base Yet through Optimization for Intel® Atom™ Tablets for Android* - Yahoo Finance . 17 January 2017 . 19 October 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141019012328/http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dragon-city-game-social-point-130900550.html . dead .
  6. Web site: GSMA Backs New Mobile Education Initiative of the Mobile World Capital . 22 August 2013.
  7. Web site: Social Point Partners with GSMA for Education . 22 August 2013 . 9 August 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130809054038/http://www.socialpoint.es/social-point-partners-with-gsma-for-education/ . dead .
  8. News: Farr . Cristina . Meet the 20 fastest- growing mobile startups . Venture Beat . 5 August 2013.
  9. News: Los Pokémon catalanes se van por 250 millones . Pueyo Busquets . Jordi . 1 February 2017 . El País . 8 August 2017.
  10. Web site: Have You Ever Dreamed of Opening Your Own Restaurant? . Marketwire. 4 April 2016.
  11. Web site: Dragon Land Is a Gorgeous New 3D Platformer out Now on Mobile . Gamezebo. 10 March 2016 . 4 April 2016.
  12. News: Lunden . Ingrid . Take-Two moves into mobile games, buys Social Point for up to $276M . 25 August 2021 . TechCrunch.
  13. Web site: Something is changing... . https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/s/instagram/B6K0ia7q2q0 . 24 December 2021 . registration. Socialpoint . 17 December 2019 . Instagram.
  14. Web site: Reyburn, Scott . Social Point's Andrés Bou on Dragon City's success on mobile, sticking with the Facebook platform and plans for 2013 . . 30 May 2013 . 4 June 2015.
  15. Web site: 31 January 2019 . Tasty Town forks over food fun on Android and iOS . 10 September 2019 . VentureBeat . en-US.
  16. Web site: 9 May 2019 . Word Life - A New Multiplayer Mobile Word Game Is Out Now . 10 September 2019 . RAGE Works . en-US.
  17. Web site: 9 May 2019 . Zynga’s Socialpoint launches merge RPG Top Troops today . 3 October 2023 . Pocket Gamer . en-US.