IGN enters Germany with GIGA.de buy
IGN's finally made a move on the German market, buying community site GIGA.de.
The site tracks at 700,000 UU per month, and was described by IGN today as "one of the most popular and highly trafficked gaming Internet sites in Germany".
“We are extremely excited about welcoming GIGA.DE as part of IGN Entertainment and continuing our international expansion by entering the German market for the first time,” said IGN international boss, Chris Ellis.
“As gamers ourselves we’re passionate about the industry and are always looking for ways to support the local gaming industry and fans. The German gaming market is one of the biggest in Europe, and the massive potential it offers made it a natural choice for us.”
IGN's been skirting the non-English-speaking European market for years, having set up IGN UK in 2006.
Press release after the hop.
IGN ENTERTAINMENT CONTINUES INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
Top German Gaming Community, GIGA.DE Joins the IGN Entertainment Network
London, 20th April 2009 - IGN Entertainment, an online leader in the world of gaming and entertainment, today announced that it has acquired the award winning German gaming community site GIGA.DE, the online arm of the GIGA television channel, and welcomed it as part of the wider IGN Entertainment family.
This marks IGN Entertainment’s first entry into the German market and will give the established GIGA.DE community of enthusiastic, articulate and highly engaged users access to some of the highest quality and most trusted gaming related content on the web.
GIGA.DE is one of the most popular and highly trafficked gaming Internet sites in Germany, with over 697,000 unique visitors each month (Source: comScore, February 2009). They have built an enviable reputation for featuring the best of community driven content, where users take full advantage of forums, blogs and voting mechanisms to create their own articles and decide what appears on the site. IGN plans to continue the excellent GIGA.DE brand reputation by building on the site’s ethos by offering existing and new users the opportunity to vote and comment on the content they would like to feature on the site from IGN’s extensive global network of news, reviews and videos.
“We are extremely excited about welcoming GIGA.DE as part of IGN Entertainment and continuing our international expansion by entering the German market for the first time” said Chris Ellis, IGN Entertainment, senior vice president and managing director international. “As gamers ourselves we’re passionate about the industry and are always looking for ways to support the local gaming industry and fans. The German gaming market is one of the biggest in Europe, and the massive potential it offers made it a natural choice for us. ”
“This is a huge opportunity to give even more to our users by offering IGN’s world class content, whilst maintaining our trademark GIGA.DE touch and feel,” commented Michael Schlieper, editor in chief at GIGA.DE. “It’s a natural fit for both brands and we’re looking forward to engaging the GIGA.DE community to create the best and most vibrant video game site in Germany.”
The best aspects of the IGN family of sites will be integrated into GIGA.DE’s content over the coming months, with the majority of it chosen and driven by the existing community, and delivering an essential and popular resource for German computer and video gamers.
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