Social Gaming Veterans SNS+ Raise $12.2 Million For Its Asia-Focused Titles

The social gaming publisher and distributor SNSplus – aka SNS+ – has wrapped up a round of funding worth US$12.2 million that was led by WI Harper Group and Matrix Partners. SNS+ makes games – many of which are on Facebook – mostly for Asian markets; it’s based in Taiwan and also has two offices in mainland China and one in Thailand.

Along Chang, the CEO of SNS+, said the injection of funds would be used to “increase the influence” of the company going forward. SNS+ already has 60 social gaming titles on Facebook, and 15 other games distributed on platforms such as Friendster, or as freemium apps on iPhone. The multi-lingual titles are focused on Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, and Indonesia, and comprise some hits such as Happy Manor, Ant Empire, and Wonder Garden (pictured below). As is clear to see, many games are Zynga-style, cutesy online games.

WI Harper, meanwhile, is a Chinese venture capital firm, and it ploughed in a full $4 million in this round. Its founder and chairman, Peter Liu, commented:

SNS+ title 'Wonder Garden' in Korean, on Facebook.

SNS+ has many advantages including in-depth market research, local platforms collaboration, local payment systems collaboration, localized operation strategies, and diverse marketing plans. SNS+ is not just a Taiwan and China play, but even more so a Southeast Asian play.

We are deploying capital in our Fund 7 portfolio along the gaming industry wisely by focusing on HTML5 based mobile and online developers, publishers, and game platforms.

SNS+ has already been in business for about ten years, so this funding is a boon to its shift to social gaming, and a vindication of how it can pay to be so well focused on the Asian market.