Online gaming industry now becomes the number 2 activity online by the youth nowadays. The gaming companies are looking forward for greater business and acquisitions. Zynga, Playdom , crowdstar and Xbox now turns up towards making more money in the market. The social gaming network has some of the biggest players in the making.

From timesofindia.indiatimes.com:

As online gaming continues to grow at double-digits – it became the number 2 online activity in June — a growing number of corporations hoping to boost their Web presence have begun to take a serious look at the biggest players in social gaming, including oft-cited targets such as Crowdstar and Kabam. Together, they power a $1.6 billion annual market for “virtual goods” – goods and services sold in-game, such as a $20 tractor in Zynga’s Farmville or $224 for 1,000 experience points in Mafia Wars – expected to hit $2.1 billion in 2011.

Media companies see a chance to put the characters and content they created for television or film in social gaming, said Attul Bagga, an analyst with Think Equity.

Alone a social networking site Facebook shares $1.6 billion market through the casual games such as Farmville, mafia wars etc.  Media and advertising companies such as Think Equity is trying to diversify their business in this field too with virtual goods and subscription models.