virtual

Exclusive: Pinterest Closes New $27M Round With Andreessen Horowitz Valuing Start-Up at $200M

Kara Swisher in Commerce on October 7, 2011 at 11:45 am PT

That’ll buy a lot of digital pushpins.

Xbox Live Adds PayPal to its Payments Options. Is PlayStation Next?

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on May 20, 2011 at 9:12 pm PT

The addition of PayPal to Xbox brings into question whether Sony will be next after last month attacked Sony’s PlayStation Network and obtained personal information about its users.

News Byte

Boku Signs Direct Billing Relationship for Physical Goods with Telefonica

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on March 23, 2011 at 10:21 am PT

Boku, a mobile payments provider, said it has signed a direct carrier billing relationship with Telefónica’s O2 in Germany. That means that O2 customers can charge virtual, digital and physical goods ranging from .09 Euros to 30 Euros to their carrier bill by entering their phone number into an app or other form. In general, the trend has been for carriers to increasingly lower the fees they charge for physical goods to make charging lower margin goods to the carrier bill more feasible. Boku says it’s connected to 230 operators in 65 countries, although not all carriers support physical payments.

Zynga Rolls Out New Virtual Currency in Addition to Facebook Credits

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on March 14, 2011 at 2:26 pm PT

Zynga is announcing a new virtual currency today called “zCoins,” which will allow users to earn rewards across 10 of its most popular games on Facebook.

Ubisoft's Digital Strategy Includes Ramping Up Its Social Gaming Efforts This Year

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on March 11, 2011 at 11:25 am PT

Ubisoft, the third-largest independent game publisher in the U.S., said it is hiring in its San Francisco office to build out a team focused on social games.

New Children's Games Combine Technology and Reality

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 3, 2011 at 4:00 pm PT

The next big thing in computer games for kids: Moving beyond the computer. Both major media companies and start-ups are experimenting with new tools that combine technology and reality in a bid to get children to engage with real-world objects. And researchers are already investigating whether the new tools help kids learn better than regular computer games do.

BilltoMobile Inks Deals With Three of the Four Major U.S. Carriers to Enable Mobile Payments

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on February 18, 2011 at 5:00 am PT

BilltoMobile has secured a deal with Sprint to enable consumers to make purchases using their mobile phones.

PayPal Will Test Several Payment Systems at Retail This Year

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on February 16, 2011 at 5:00 am PT

PayPal will conduct several pilot programs over the next year to test how consumers will use their PayPal accounts–at the register.

News Byte

Zynga Revenues Soar to $850 Million in 2010

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on February 14, 2011 at 12:59 pm PT

Zynga, which develops popular games on Facebook, like CityVille and Mafia Wars, is considering raising up to $250 million in new funding, the WSJ reports. That transaction could value the three-year-old start-up at between $7 billion and $9 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. But sources also say its financials are sound, with Zynga earning $400 million in profit on $850 million in revenues last year.

YooMee Games Opens the Chuck E. Cheese of Online Arcades

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on February 8, 2011 at 4:30 am PT

What do you get when you give casual game players the chance to compete for cash and prizes? A really addictive experience. Or at least that’s the hope of YooMee Games.