Toby Rowland joins board of social strategy games publisher eRepublik Labs

[UK/Spain] Experienced Internet entrepreneur Toby Rowland has joined the board of Spanish startup eRepublik Labs, the social strategy games publisher.

Rowland’s many achievements include co-founding King.com, which he took from startup to be a major player in the casual gaming space. And while VP of Marketing at uDate.com, he helped grow the online dating site to be number two in the US and UK. In December 2002, uDate.com acquired by IAC for $150 million. His latest venture is maths game site Mangahigh.com, where he also serves as CEO.

Therefore, having Rowland join the board of eRepublik seems quite a coup.

eRepublik Labs was founded in 2007 and is backed to the tune of €2,750,000 from AGF Private Equity in addition to various angels.

The startup’s first product is eRepublik, a massive online social strategy game which mirrors the real world. Players (called citizens) can participate in politics, set economic policy, start businesses, engage in wars with other countries and interact with each other along the way.

A year after the site’s public launch, eRepublik boasts one million registered users, of which 350,000 are deemed ‘active’ with 50% logging in everyday. In December 2009 the browser-based game saw 8.6 million visits and 206 million page views.