Zynga Acquires Chinese Social Game Developer

The American social gaming developer Zynga has announced that it has acquired the Beijing-based Chinese social media gaming company, XPD Media Inc.

Though having already acquired XPD Media, Zynga still decided to open its second overseas office in Beijing, following the opening of its first in Bangalore, India, in March 2010. Zynga did not reveal the financial details for its transaction with XPD Media.

This is Zynga’s fourth acquisition over the past two years and it also marks Zynga’s first step into the mature Asian gaming market. Zynga’s largest competitor, Playfish, has already set up an office in China.

Zynga’s acquisition of the Chinese company reportedly aims at quality talents in China, instead of expanding its user base. XPD Media has a team of 40 employees, including talented developers and engineers. Zynga is also reportedly planning to hire a chief technology officer, human resources managing staff, and software engineers for its new Beijing office.

Supported by the two venture capital firms, True Ventures and Pilot Group, XPD Media is one of the many social gaming developers in China and the company has developed many games for international platforms like Facebook. Upon the completion of the acquisition, XPD’s CEO Robin Chan will be Zynga’s general manager of Asian business; and XPD’s co-founder Andy Tian will lead Zynga’s Beijing studio.

So far, Zynga has not launched any game product for the Asian social networking market. The company did not reveal the internationalization or localization goal related to XPD Media either.