Renren Games Puts 10 Million RMB into New Big Data/Psych Lab to Research Online Communities

Renren is apparently thinking very long-term when it comes to gaming. As interest in the company’s social platform fades we’ve seen the company focus more on games, but yesterday the company announced plans that indicate it’s thinking very-long term about them. Renren Games has donated 10 million RMB ($1.6) to China’s prestigious Qinghua University to set up a joint research lab under the wing of Qinghua’s psychology department.

The new lab will be called the BBD lab (short for Behavior and Big Data) and will focus primarily on researching psychological behavior relating to virtual communities, much like those that spring up in massively-multiplayer games from World of Warcraft to Happy Farm. Renren Games CEO He Chuan explained (our translation):

The world of games is a virtual society, and there are many issues relating to the psychological behaviors [observed] therein. Renren Games already has a professional “big data” team, but we’ve found that the problems above can’t be resolved only through data analysis, we need to integrate psychology and sociology (too).

Renren apparently expects the new lab to produce tangible results quickly, as He Chuan told reporters that “it can yield a lot of money this year.” The lab will reportedly be focused on practical applications rather than pure theory, but it will be interesting to see if Renren can really turn a new R&D project into money so quickly.

(via Sina Tech)