PapayaMobile gets $4M for Android gaming

Mobile network for social gaming on Google Android smartphones is already profitable

PapayaMobile, a mobile network and social gaming platform for Google Android devices, has raised $4 million in new funding from global venture capital firm DCM.

Centered right at the intersection of mobile gaming and social media, PapayaMobile provides an open-API, cross-platform mobile social networking service that third-party developers can integrate directly into their own apps. The idea is that, with Papaya's social SDK, developers can introduce a social community to their product, opening up the doors to increased user interest and extra revenue possibilities.

“The Android platform is the fastest growing mobile platform with a promising international growth curve ahead of it, but it currently lacks an effective distribution channel for application developers,” said PapayaMobile CEO and co-founder, Si Shen. “Papaya provides a solution to this with its set of developer tools that make it easy to access our massive user base and start making money quickly."

Papaya is a fully-featured social network, offering users the ability to play games, create and customize avatars, create chat rooms to meet new friends, send and receive internal mail, and share pictures with friends. Further, Papaya's chat feature integrates all the most popular clients, including AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN, and Google Talk.

Impressively (but perhaps not unexpected from a service banking on mobile and social), PapayaMobile is already profitable; the company will still find good uses for the funding, however, like increasing the network's developer community, further developing its social and gaming mobile applications, and expanding the management team.