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PlaySpan

Latin American virtual goods market to be worth $517m next year, apparently.

Santa Clara, California & New York, New York – February 24, 2011 – PlaySpan, the leading global monetization platform for mobile, social and online games and apps, and SuperData Research, the digital goods measurement firm, today released new data on the Latin American virtual goods market, with a special focus on Brazil, the fastest growing market for online entertainment in that region.

According to SuperData Research, which bases its estimates from the World Bank and Brazilian census in combination with PlaySpan’s extensive gamer payments database, the overall virtual goods market in Latin America currently stands at $336 Million, with Brazil accounting for $165 Million or roughly 49% of the total market value. SuperData predicts the entire Virtual Goods Market in Latin America will increase by more than 50% in the next two years, amounting to $517 Million by 2012.

The Top 5 Countries in Latin America (based on market value):

·      Brazil               $165M

·      Colombia         $44M

·      Mexico            $42M

·      Argentina         $19M

·      Peru                 $15M

·      Other                $49M

Overall, Brazil has the highest ARPU for users in Latin America based on an annual per capita spending at $0.85, well above the region’s average of $0.60. This is attributable to high internet penetration rates, where Brazil has nearly doubled its online population every three years since 2002 and now stands at around 110 million users.

Unlike western countries, however, credit cards are not as common in Brazil, so those looking to monetize effectively must consider alternate forms of payment. Based on information from PlaySpan’s payments platform, Ultimate Pay, used by more than 1000 online games, the payment method distribution for virtual items and currencies looks like this:

Preferred Payment Methods:

·      Bank Transfers            45.7%

·      Credit/Debit Cards       26.7%

·      Prepaid Cards              22.6%

·      PayPal                          4.4%

·      Other                             0.6%

“The predominance of prepaid cards, e-vouchers and bank transfers indicates that Brazilians prefer to pay with cash because they either don’t have credit cards or would prefer that charges and fees not appear on their phone bill. This preference for cash opens up major opportunities for developers and publishers to capitalize on gifting seasons, and pay cycles,” said Joost van Dreunen, President, SuperData Research.

“Emerging markets like Brazil and Latin America as a whole represent major opportunities for developers but, characteristically, they are very different from other regions of the world,” said Karl Mehta, Founder & CEO of PlaySpan. “As the virtual goods market continues to expand and grow globally, PlaySpan is committed to providing the tools and analysis to help game industry executives take advantage of the next wave of growth in hard to monetize regions.”

A copy of the SuperData-PlaySpan report on Latin American virtual goods market can be obtained from http://www.playspan.com/marketing/images/reports/.

About PlaySpan, Inc.

PlaySpan® is the trusted partner in global monetization solutions for leading publishers and developers of digital media, online games, mobile apps and social networks. Our patent-pending in-game digital goods commerce and Monetization-as-a-Service TM (MaaS) TM platform called UltimatePay TM enables publishers and developers to rapidly integrate a complete, in-game or in-app immersive experience for monetizing users through virtual currency wallets, virtual goods merchandising, and subscriptions.

UltimatePay enables consumers to make safe, convenient and friendly in-app purchases using over 85 global payment methods in 180 countries. UltimatePay includes PlaySpan's Ultimate Game Card®, the #1 selling multi-game pre-paid card available in more than 50,000 retail locations across North America and a growing list of countries worldwide.

We are headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in Ohio, Virginia, and Mumbai. Investors include Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank Capital, STIC, Softbank, Vodafone and GE Asset Management. The company has won over 13 awards during past 3 years and was honored as one of the 2010 OnMedia Top 100, AlwaysOn Global 250, won the 2010 E&Y Entrepreneur of Year Award for Northern California by PlaySpan CEO, and was named to Business Insider’s Digital 100 for 2010.

About SuperData Research, Inc.

SuperData Research is a research provider specialized in digital goods measurement, and helps clients think through challenges and opportunities emerging at the intersection of traditional retail and online entertainment, including virtual item sales, monetization, alternative payment methods and social game economics. In January 2010, SuperData Research secured multi-year angel funding. Its client base includes brand owners, developers, retailers, publishers, VCs, and payment providers.

For more information please visit: www.SuperDataResearch.com

Media Contact:

Eric Gonzalez

VSC PR (on behalf of PlaySpan)

415.272.0836

eric@vscconsulting.com --

Eric Gonzalez

Senior Playmaker

VSCpr & AppLaunchPR

San Francisco | London | New York | Mumbai

(mobile phone) 415.272.0836

(direct) 415.677.9125 x 256

(e) - eric@vscconsulting.com

(website) - http://www.vscconsulting.com / www.applaunchpr.com

Skype - erandall44

Mailing address:

76 Second Street

San Francisco, CA 94105

 

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