“Our famous 8 Ball Pool™ is probably one of the most attractive real-time games at the moment. Players can compete with other players from around the world. Right now, there are more than 200,000 users playing our game,” points out CEO Robert Small, who founded Miniclip in partnership with Tihan Presbie in 2001. “It takes impressive technology to pull that off. Our staff works a lot in the background to ensure that the players have a seamless experience in our games.”
After graduating from university in 2000, Mr. Small, a keen gamer, had the dream of starting his own enterprise focused on game entertainment.
“We wanted to revolutionize the way people were entertained online. I daresay we have succeeded as we have made it to the top in online gaming with over 80 million users per month, 60% of whom are playing on mobile platforms.”
A growing number of users today access Miniclip’s gaming platform via smartphones, and the outlook is that more and more users from emerging markets such as Brazil, Indonesia or India will join the trend. The company’s success in online gaming is based on its enthusiasm for developing new solutions in collaboration with its users and clients.
“We are always in direct contact with our users. Take the successful Beast Quest game based on the book series of the same title for boys aged between eight and ten years old,” stresses Mr. Small. “We have developed a formula that appeals to this specific age group. We re-imagined that in a mobile game. It was featured by Apple quite recently, and we have already seen incredible download numbers. Apple and Google are important partners for us. Those are the commercial relationships that we seek.”
Miniclip generates most of its turnover through consumers making in-app purchases. In addition, it sells advertising space. Consulting services, bringing customers’ contents to life in games, is the company’s latest business activity.
As a result of its new strategic partnership with Tencent, the fifth-largest Internet company globally, Miniclip is about to expand its presence in Asia. There are still a lot of users out there eagerly awaiting new games.
