Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian internet company with investments in Facebook, Groupon and Zynga, has gained more international recognition with its latest deal–a $388 million investment from Myriad International Holdings. The investment gives Naspers, Myriad’s parent company, a 28.7 percent stake in DST, reports VentureBeat.

For the trouble, the South Africa-based Naspers is forking over its 39.3 percent stake in Mail.ru to DST, giving it 99.9 percent ownership in the massive email client. Naspers and DST co-owned Mail.ru for the past three years.

The financing comes after a $300 million investment from Chinese internet company Tencent, giving DST a great deal to work with in the coming year. With a number of popular multiplayer online games and a large social network in Russia, DST is becoming a doorway for others to invest and become involved in the growing trend around virtual economies and social media marketing.

The international appeal for virtual economies is gaining speed, with companies like DST introducing opportunities for growth in its geographic European base. Established virtual economies in Asian areas are taking advantage of the global adoption of virtual and social economies, with US newcomers looking to tap into the existing popularity of the market in places like Japan.

Facebook has not only taken its gaming initiatives to the far reaches of the world, but is encouraging its game developers to do the same. Adding language support, finding ways to fit into other local cultures and new invite systems to reach Asian user bases in a viral fashion are some of the ways Facebook has suggested for game developers to become more globally appealing.

This should work out swimmingly for Facebook, as it strives to grow its gaming portal while also working towards becoming a central distribution hub for mobile games. It’s success with Zynga is evidence that consumers will readily take to this level of integration, factoring in location for marketing and revenue-generating opportunities around international growth.

With Google putting a sizable amount of money into Zynga while continuing to encourage development on its Android platform, it’s clear that Google is seeking a large mobile gaming presence as well. Now that social gaming and virtual economies have become popular on a global scale, it’s time to focus on growth opportunities around this junction of personal messaging, social gaming and their interwoven networks.