Pinoy online gaming firm Bazinga eyes global expansion

Pioneering 'technopreneur' Homer Nievera is the CEO and one of the founders of Bazinga, Inc., the Philippine-based global IT company that is at the forefront of gaming technology.

MANILA, Philippines - With only six months operation overseas, Filipino-owned digital entertainment company Bazinga Inc. has already gained a foothold in the United States and is now eyeing a global expansion.

As a young company that opened its global headquarters in Houston, Texas in November 2012, Bazinga engages in providing fun and entertainment to the public through casual and social gaming. It also develops, operates and markets entertainment content worldwide.

Bazinga has established affiliate offices in San Francisco, San Diego and San Jose in California (close to tech country Silicon Valley), New York City, Las Vegas, Dallas, and Washington DC. It is planning to launch its London office soon. The company's local office is based at the Cyberone Plaza building in Eastwood City Libis, Quezon City.

Homer Nievera, chief executive officer of Bazinga Inc., said developing, operating and marketing online entertainment may not be ingenious as it sounds. But one aspect that Bazinga is focusing on is the intrinsic advergaming opportunities provided by the platform itself.  

“Advergaming is a fun and novel way of marketing a product by way of a downloadable game app that advertises the product. The brand is woven in the game itself,” Nievera said. “Think casual plugs or product use or product placement in the movie itself. The potential of having ad placements in your game that is creatively woven in it is one way of reaching out to your intended market.”

Though advergaming has been around in the 1990s, its full potential has only been tapped only recently with the advent of social network gaming and is just being maximized to its full potential at present.

Nievera attributes Bazinga's success to Filipino ingenuity. He believes that when it comes to artistry and being tech-savvy, Filipinos are at a par with the best the world can offer.  

The Pinoy executive added that Filipino ingenuity is showcased in the games being developed by Bazinga’s partner, Palmagick Entertainment. Its online word game, Wordtrotter, got the nods of the world’s biggest gaming networks—Big Fish Games, Wild Tangent, Mochi Media and Friendster, as well as Facebook.

“More than just creating the best game in town or in the world or for Filipinos to be known for online gaming, we really wanted to enable Filipino technopreneurs globally,” Nievera said. “That’s why we support the local game programmers and developers by providing the right venue to realize their dreams of having their software programs and games see the light of day, as we help them in developing and marketing their software and games both locally and internationally.”

Bazinga is also into game development partnering. One partnership the company is proud of is tying up with Palmagick Entertainment, the developer of Wordtrotter and a host of other games that Bazinga is set to launch.

Wordtrotter, an animated, fun and vocabulary-building game, is one of the most popular downloaded games on Facebook. It was created by a team of Filipino gaming developers and is being marketed globally by Bazinga, Inc.

Nievera claimed Bazinga has opened the door for the so-called "Pinoy tech-genuity."

"Filipino innovators and technopreneurs have found an ally in Bazinga to champion their products, concepts and ideas to the world. As people usually say in the company when they’re excited over a milestone – Bazinga!" quips Nievera.