Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 16, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Hamburg-based Bigpoint GmbH, provider of browser-based online games (browser games), remains on an expansion course – and toward the east. Bigpoint has concluded no fewer than two media cooperations with the two leading Russian search engines. With the availability of its browser games on the two Russian web portals, Bigpoint is entering the Russian market, because interest in games that can be played on the Internet independently of place and time in the global age is growing rapidly – and internationally. Due to this browser-game boom, Bigpoint has meanwhile exceeded the 10-million mark in registrations.
Yandex and Rambler – Russia’s two largest web portals
The media partnership with the web portal Yandex initially includes the integration of Bigpoint games in the catalogue of Yandex’s payment system (Yandex Money). Yandex has existed since 2000 and, alongside a web catalogue with web search, also offers webmail, news, classified ads, image search, a blog service, online maps and smaller services. Alongside Rambler, Yandex is one of the market leaders in web search on the Russian Internet.
The content of the media cooperation with Rambler is the integration of Bigpoint’s browser games on the platform of Russia’s second-largest search engine. Bigpoint’s games are integrated on games.Rambler in co-brand. Alongside Russian, Rambler also has an English- and German-language search interface. In 2000, Rambler exceeded the mark of one billion search queries. With a market share of 20%, it is the second-largest search engine in the Russian-speaking area.
“This market entry into the Russian market is a milestone in our company history,” says Heiko Hubertz, founder and managing director of Bigpoint. “We hope these cooperations will give us access to this huge gamer market and allow us to expand our cooperation model with media, Internet portals and publishers worldwide as a fixed component of our business model. We support our partners in addressing their long-term players with our browser games and thus strengthening the gaming communities on web portals. With the two partnerships, we are breaking new ground. We are very curious how the Russian gamers will react to our games”
