RockYou

SchoolFeed Turns High School Reunions Into a Facebook Social Game

Liz Gannes in Social on February 8 at 5:00 am PT

SchoolFeed, which is building a sort of Facebook social gaming version of Classmates.com, already has six million monthly users. Now it has raised $1.75 million in funding.

Game Studios Are Hot Acquisition Targets in the Race to Mobile and Social

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on July 22, 2011 at 10:05 am PT

Following the intense bidding war for PopCap last week, it’s likely that more blockbuster purchases will come. So, who will be next?

Game Companies Deploy Facebook Credits at the Final Hour

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on July 1, 2011 at 4:45 am PT

Starting today, Facebook is requiring all social game developers on its network to process payments through Facebook Credits — and consequently share 30 percent of the revenues with Facebook. Despite some early complaining and a few slackers that were rushing to get in compliance this week, the deadline appears to be passing without much of a fuss.

LivingSocial Worth $3.6B, Yelp $561M, According to SharesPost

Liz Gannes in Social on June 6, 2011 at 9:25 am PT

We don’t usually post secondary market valuations, because they are endlessly changing and based on minimal trades. But today SharesPost posted research reports and valuations on four private companies, which makes the comparisons a bit more interesting.

RockYou Acquires Playdemic for Bigger Push Into Social Games

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 13, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

RockYou has acquired Playdemic of Manchester, England, to continue its transformation from a widget-maker on Facebook to a social games developer.

AngelPad, an Incubator for Entrepreneurs With Credentials

Liz Gannes in Social on November 11, 2010 at 11:12 am PT

AngelPad, the new incubator from former Googlers, held its first end-of-session Demo Day last night at its offices on a dead-end alley in San Francisco’s SOMA district. It was a familiar format for those who have been to Y Combinator and TechStars Demo Days, and indeed just about every one of the hundred or so investors in the room is a frequent presence at those events.

RockYou Looks Past China's Internet Users

Loretta Chao, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on April 12, 2010 at 11:00 am PT

China has the attention of RockYou, one of the earliest developers of widgets for social networks. But it isn’t China’s nearly 400 million Internet users that are the main draw–it’s the nation’s developers.

Video of RockYou Founders Talking About the New $17 Million Funding for Asian Expansion

Kara Swisher in News on November 3, 2008 at 4:00 am PT

Widget maker RockYou announced today that it has nabbed a $17 million investment from two Asian firms, SoftBank Group and SK Telecom Ventures. The investment will be added to $35 million from the Redwood City, Calif.-based start-up’s C round in June. Overall, RockYou has raised a total of $67 million and–before the current econalypse–had previously reported a $400 million valuation. In a video with BoomTown, the company’s co-founders, CEO Lance Tokuda and CTO Jia Shen, said the new funding would be used to expand into the Asia-Pacific market, add offices and staff and make acquisitions.

Some Facebook Apps Are Actually More Equal Than Others

Kara Swisher in News on July 22, 2008 at 12:28 pm PT

Tomorrow, when it rolls out its new platform, one of the more interesting pieces of news from Facebook will be its initiative to dub certain of its third-party app developers more special than others. The social-networking site has selected just two, in fact–Causes and iLike–to receive “preferred” status. While BoomTown is unclear as to the details, several sources said that this initiative has to do with developing in a way more in line with the goals of Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.