At the Inside Social Apps conference, a panel discussed the importance of Apple, Google and Facebook to the industry. Facebook was agreed to be very important, despite its issues, Apple is seen as having the leading mobile platform and Google+ is seen as an important platform for the future while Android is also raising its profile.

Wooga in particular has managed 40 million monthly average users on Facebook, triple the growth over last year, with 5 percent of new users coming from advertising, 55 percent coming from cross-marketing from their own games, and 40 percent being viral. “We are very happy with the growth we see on Facebook,” said Jens Begemann, founder and CEO of Wooga. “Our four largest games had their all time highs last week., and some of them are two years old.”

Facebook Credits were a major issue of contention among the developers, since it taxes developers 30 percent of their revenue. “I think Facebook Credits have probably helped our growth rate by 5 percent to 10 percent,” said Kevin Chou, CEO and co-founder of Kabam. “Which means we’re taking a 20 percent net tax.”

“Facebook Credits have been a wash,” according to Jamil Moledina, VP of Business Development at Funzio. “The percentage of users that is paying is increasing, but the total volume is flat.”

Begemann disagreed with the negative sentiment, however, saying, “You should appreciate more that the Facebook platform is completely free. I’ve never heard anyone complain about Apple’s 30 percent share. Only if you’re successful do you give 30 percent to Facebook.”

The panel moved on to mobile games and it was agreed that social and mobile sectors are coming together. While Android is fragmented compared to iOS, it was agreed that Google’s mobile OS was growing in importance.

“We started off with two very separate efforts that are starting to meet in the middle,” said John Spinale, SVP of social games for Disney Interactive. “People have more devices in their hands these days that don’t have keyboards than do. We’re making sure our existing social games extend out to mobile. Largely that means iOS, but we’re seeing incredible revenue growth on Android.”

Source: IndustryGamers.com {link no longer active}