Inside Social Games

Social networks have been growing around the world, but we spend most of our time talking about North America, Western Europe, and Asia. Less talked about is VKontakte, a social network based in Russia with 36 million global users and the most popular website in the country. Now, having seen the success of games and applications on social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and hi5, VKontakte is calling more developers to build for its platform as well.

Since launching its platform a few months ago, the company says over 50,000 applications have been added, with more coming every day. There’s no review fee, and VKontakte says it’s adding additional translation and localization services for developers, alleviating language barriers and cultural differences. Following the initial application upload, a translation can be completed in as little as a day or two.

For developers monetizing their apps and games through virtual currency, VKontakte has a virtual currency API like that of “social entertainment” site hi5. Dubbed “Votes,” Vkontakte’s virtual currency works the same way as hi5 Coins. Users purchase Votes through the social network itself. They can then use them to purchase goods and premium services within any of the applications that offer them.

While VKontake’s API information pages are only available in Russian for the time being, the social network says it’s currently working on English renditions. If you happen to know Russian, you can register and dive right in. If not, check back later at their upload and API pages.