You've heard of Zynga and FarmVille, but have you heard of FunPlus and Family Farm? Enough people have that the Chinese social-mobile gaming startup will announce today that it's raised a huge round: $74 million, on top of a previous $13 million raised in 2012.
Orchid Asia Group, GSR Ventures and Steamboat Ventures led the round, which will bring on new board members and lay the groundwork for recruiting. FunPlus makes three games on Facebook — Family Farm, Royal Story and Fantasy Slots — and one iOS/Android mobile title, Family Farm Seaside; all are free-to-play, and supported by players who buy in-game virtual currency and goods.
And boy, do those players spend. FunPlus's revenue has doubled every year since 2011 and currently reports six million daily active players. In an interview with Re/code, chief strategy officer Dan Fiden said the company makes between 8 and 10 cents in average revenue per daily active user, or ARPDAU. That means its current annual revenues would be somewhere between $175 million and $219 million, if daily revenue were stable year-round.
To put that in context, Zynga grossed $147 million in Q4 2013 off of 27 million daily active users, for six cents in ARPDAU. Fiden claimed the industry average on mobile and Facebook is about three to four cents.
Read the rest of the analysis on Recode.
—By Eric Johnson, Re/code.net.
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