Social networking is elbowing out many other industries with its massive popularity on a global scale. One of the luckiest channels here is social gaming.  Everyone saw how Zynga, makers of FarmVille and CityVille, spooned money from Facebook users, entered an IPO with a billion-dollar valuation, and is now invading the Google+ landscape.  This has set a market trend, magnetizing interest from developers and publishers in various parts of the world.

Peak Games, a Turkish company, is a fast-rising star in the social gaming sphere, especially with its grasp on emerging markets.  The company’s landed $19 million in funding from Earlybird Venture Capital, Hummingbird Ventures and a strategic investor.

Chief executive officer and founder of Peak Games, Sidar Sahin expressed his excitement over the many developments that his social gaming company has been realizing:

“At Peak Games, understanding emerging markets like Turkey, MENA and Latin America is in our DNA! We’re at a point where we know what kind of games they enjoy, how to acquire new users in specific regions, what triggers virality, and, ultimately, how to monetize. Our development studios are focusing on creating the best games on the market and we’re making sure that they’re culturally relevant.  Now with the acquisition of Umaykut, we’re very excited for our next-generation core games.”

Showing its strength, Peak Games reached several milestones in just one day: a new acquisition, new social gaming updates, new partnerships and new funding. They’re boastful of their recent developments, growing at a record pace in underserved markets that include the MENA or Middle East and North Africa (30% growth in 6 months), Brazil (98% growth in 6 months) and Mexico(21% in 6 months)—all of which are higher compared to the growth rate in its homeland, Turkey with 17%.  Peak Games also took a leap at expanding their business with the acquisition of two local gaming studios Umaykut and Erlikhan. With no signs of slowing down, they have also tapped the service of RockYou to come up with new games like Happy Farm.

With their relentless efforts to improve their social gaming edge, it didn’t came as a surprise that Peak Games secured a sum of $19 million.  In just a year, the social gaming pride of Turkey has risen to the ranks, landing on the 6^th spot in the fastest growing social gaming company for emerging markets.  Their early utilization of  business intelligence factors is also noteworthy, driving the company to make the big decisions that impact revenue and strategies moving forward.

Culturally-specific games employing strong engagement, and monetization strategies can be a lucrative business for start-ups that would like to take a deep dive into social networking.  This goes with the most talked about updates in Facebook’s portfolio, encouraging us to rethink how people tell their life stories and interact in social platforms—and this will definitely include gaming.  There’s a number of outlets emerging around social gaming, and finding your niche is one of the most important parts of the process.