With more and more Romanians owning a smartphone, the number of those who use the device for something else rather than just phone calls has also started to increase.

Most smartphone users are young people, who most of the time use their phone to access social network pages, stay on the internet or play games.

Local daily Wall-street.ro writes that 8 out of 10 Romanian smartphone users play games while in the metro, and 7 of them choose casual games, according to Mihai Sfrijan, head of studio for game producer King Romania.

Two out of 10 Romanians who own a smartphone use the device to play the Candy Crush game developed by King.

“It’s more and more difficult to sacrifice free time to play, which is why people prefer this type of relaxation. It's also fun, but in a slightly different form,” said Sfrijan, quoted by Wall-street.ro.

King was set up in 2003 in Sweden and is headquartered in London. The company became famous in 2012 for its game Candy Crush Saga, which was first launched as a Facebook game. Later on it was launched for Android and iOS devices. The company opened its office in Romania in 2011, with four employees, and exceeded 30 in 2012.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com