Kongregate thriving under GameStop

Kongregate co-founder Jim Greer has revealed significant growth since Gamestop’s acquisition of the online gaming portal and social network back in July 2010.

Greer tells VentureBeat that Kongregate doubled the number of virtual goods-based games on the site, subsequently tripling virtual goods revenue in the last year — adding that those virtual goods sales now make up 80 percent of the site’s revenue.

The company has also added some 15 new employees since it was acquired by Gamestop.

Kongregate offers around 50,000 games, most of which are free indie games or free-to-play titles with micro-transactions. While the site would seem to be in competition with other social gaming landings such as Facebook, Greer makes it clear there is a fundamental difference in mantra.

Facebook is a place to socialize and play games. We’re the opposite: a place to play games first, and then socialize. Kongregate is mostly about the games, just as Xbox Live is,” Greer said.

Kongregate games also have nearly two times higher conversion rates than Facebook games.

The site currently boasts over 15m users, with 14,000 game developers making use of the Kongregate platform.