INTERNET ENTREPRENEUR Dylan Collins has said his latest investment, a social network aimed at pre-teen boys, could be the next Moshi Monsters.

Fight My Monster was founded by well-known open source software contributor Dominic Williams, whose four sons complained that Moshi Monsters was too “girly”. Since launching late last year, the site has grown to more than 130,000 users.

Designed for boys aged seven to 12, Fight My Monster allows them to build and collect a variety of virtual monsters which they can pit in battles against their friends.

Moshi Monsters, developed by British games firm Mind Candy, has 34 million users in 150 countries, and is expected to turn over about $100 million this year.

Its user base is 75 per cent girls, however, and Mr Williams saw an opportunity to create a site for boys. Mr Collins is the first external investor in Fight My Monster, which has been funded by Mr Williams to date.

The site has signed up new users in a viral fashion to date with existing users telling their friends. Mr Collins said more than 10 per cent of users were now in Ireland.

Mr Collins, who has founded and sold on a number of internet- and games-related start-ups including Phorest, DemonWare and Jolt Online Gaming, has become a director of Fight My Monster and is acting as “de facto” chairman. “I’m helping put the team together to build the company but there’s an awful lot of interest,” said Mr Collins.

Fight My Monster recently introduced subscriptions, which allow players to create custom monsters, get power-ups and do other things with their characters not possible with the free service. This approach has been successful for Moshi Monsters and Mr Collins said this was likely to be the main source of revenue for Fight My Monster.

Mr Collins made the investment through his own angel fund. He recently stepped back from an executive role at Jolt Online Gaming, which was acquired by Gamestop, the world’s largest games retailer, in 2009.