Five Minutes, Inventor of Happy Farm Raised $3.5 Millions

Posted by Gang Lu on December 19, 2009 · Filed Under China Web2

Confirmed by Season Xu, his Five Minutes, the development company of the very popular social game Happy Farm has raised $3.5 millions from DFJ Dragon Fund. And the valuation of this company is also reported to reach RMB 100million. DFJ also invested the leading Chinese Wiki, Hudong.

In some sense, 2009 of China web is the year of Happy Farm which is so popular that this social game or its clones can be found on almost all the leading social networks in China, including Tencent’s QZone, Renren and Kaixin001. It’s reported that the active players of Happy Farm in total have reached 23 million.

Money is of course a good thing. Chinese Open Platform starts from Jan 2008. After 2-years testing the water, with more and more independent application development companies recognized by the industry, the value chain (platform operator, advertiser, application development companies and users) is getting more clear and mature.

But money is not going to guarantee the forever success of Happy Farm. How Five Minutes is going to spend the money and the company strategy in future are the most interesting questions. Will Five Minutes focus on global social gaming industry, e.g. spending more effort on Facebook and become the next Playfish or a leader company in worldwide market? What’s the next after Happy Farm, and will it repeat the same success? I hope we see more in next 6 months.

Comments

huangg

I guess 5 Mins was funded by DFJ, not its affiliatie fund DFJ Dragon. We are currently looking tightly on gaming too. Look to see more insights here.

-Chris

Web design Company

Hi

Great information and China web is the year of Happy Farm which is so popular that this social game or its clones can be found on almost all the leading social networks in China, including Tencent’s QZone, Renren and Kaixin001.

snakechen

Maybe we can expect Happy farmland 2 will be out soon,otherwise people will question why DFJ make this deal. To be honest,I don't understand this deal.

observerchina

Only RMB 100 million company valuation for the hottest social game? Sounds good ... sounds like valuations are much more reasonable during this current economic climate.

Do you agree?

Gang Lu

I am not sure about the figure.

A few more notes:

1. Happy Farm is the hottest indeed, but still it's a service dependent on other platforms.
2. Five Minutes is the first one raised vc fund in China, and most likely it is not the last one.
3. What will replace Happy Farm and when?