Game search engine Wazap launches in U.S.

Wazap a fast-growing search engine focused exclusively on games, launched in the U.S. today.

Until now, the Berlin, Germany company has versions German, Japanese and Chinese. Wazap’s entry into the U.S. puts pressure on the other leading video game search engine, Ziff Davis Media’s Gazerk. Since we first profiled Wazup in January, its unique user base has increased to 16 million uniques a month worldwide, up from 11 million. Thom Kozik, formerly of Yahoo Games, launched the U.S. site from Los Angeles.

If you’re searching for a game on Gazerk or Wazap, both will give you results with names of the games, cheats, news and reviews. However, Wazap tries to go further, adding more community features. It lets users rank the results, add their own comments and lets them build their own profile specifying game and console preferences.

The U.S. version adds games to its index that American are most likely to play. More features for hard-core gamers are coming.

The company said it had $1 million in revenue last year.

It has raised almost $11.9 million from Partech International and Wellington Partners.

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