Ovum principal analyst Eden Zoller says Google must begin to position itself in the social media space in order to defend against stronger competitors, following a string of social media-based acquisitions.
The comment comes after Google purchased Social Deck last week, rounding off its fifth acquisition during August.
“Google already has numerous social media assets to draw on, but the problem is that they are largely fragmented, with no underpinning framework or a front end to pull them together beyond search,” Zoller said.
“The ability to monetise social games through ad revenues and an emerging inbuilt virtual goods economy is driving the supply-side trend of social gaming.”
Zoller notes plenty of users are “flocking” to social gaming, and are spending a large amount of their time there.
“Google’s location capabilities can enhance social mobile gaming further, while it will no doubt look at developing cross-platform social gaming in the future. Adding all this to the social mix could prove compelling.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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