The boss of Mind Candy, the company behind popular kids social network Moshi Monsters, has taken to YouTube to announce his resignation as CEO, but will continue in a more “creative role” as the social network.
Michael Acton Smith, who has run the business for 10 years, said he wanted to focus on a “more creative role” rather than the day-to-day running of the firm.
Acton Smith will be replaced as president by the current chief operating and financial officer, Davina Knowles, while the company also searches for a new chief executive.
With approximately 80 million users, Moshi Monsters is one of the world’s most popular children’s social networks, but Knowles has already identified some areas for potential improvement.
Crucially, the new president is keen to raise the profile of Mind Candy’s other products, such as World of Warriors and its new ‘Instagram for Kids’ product PopJam.
The firm is also rumoured to be expanding the number of freemium services it operates, with around half of its revenue currently arising from associated merchandise, such as plush toys, music albums and other spin-offs.
In an interview with the BBC, Ms Knowles said, “”Moshi has been absolutely amazing. But Mind Candy has gone from being a one-product company to multiple products. The business now is much more complex than it used to be.
“Michael is known as ‘Mr Moshi’. It’s now about taking us more to being Mind Candy.”
Moshi Monsters sales growth has plateaued recently, as the firm has been slow to adapt to to mobile and to react to the rise of “freemium” business models, where users get the game for free but pay for upgrades.
The company is know leaning heavily on mechandising, with less than half of Mind Candy’s £46.9m revenues in 2012 came from payments for its digital games, with the rest coming from licensing for toys and other products, and a self-published magazine.
View the YouTube video here: