Social gaming company Heyzap?has raised $4.3 million, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company had previously raised $3.65 million from Union Square Ventures, Chris Dixon and Naval Ravikant, bringing its total raised to just under $8 million total.
It is unclear from the filing who invested the money, but TechCrunch is reporting that the money came from existing investor Union Square Ventures, and new investor Qualcomm. VatorNews reached out to Heyzap for more information, but it could not be reached for comment.
Founded in 2008 by?Jude Gomila?and?Immad Akhund, the San Francisco-based social discovery platform?graduated from Y Combinator in 2009. The company provides users with a way to check-in to their favorite games, discover new games and find a community of gamers. It allows users to let other gamers know what they are playing, leave or find tips for their favorite games and earn badges.
Heyzap currently partners with over 2,000 developers on iOS and Android, including PocketGems, Spacetime Studios, Animoca and Digital Chocolate, and currently has 9 million users.
The news was first reported by The Next Web on Friday.
The fall of Zynga
With the fall of?Zynga?in 2012, there is a big opening in the social gaming world, and Heyzap is no doubt looking to be the company to fill it.
In October, Zynga released a statement saying that it was?lowering its outlook?based on disappointing preliminary third-quarter results. Due to Zynga?s weak performance, JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth lowered his estimates for Facebook?s payments revenue in 2013 to $582 million from $797 million, based on how much of its revenue would be coming from Zynga.
It was just the latest step in the declining relationship between the two companies, which had seen its once mutually beneficially partnership crumble as Zynga?s games became less popular, and the company became more dependant on Facebook for revenue, even as the amount of revenue Facebook was getting from Zynga was declining.
Then, finally, in November, Zynga and Facebook?filed documents?with the SEC to loosen the relationship between the two companies.
According to the documents, Zynga will no longer be obligated to?display Facebook ads, or use Facebook credits in its games on its own platform. Any games offered on its platform, or other platforms, will still have to be offered on Facebook too, though there are some exceptions regarding real-money gambling games, mobile games and games launched in China or Japan.
The lessons from Zynga
Of course, other social gaming companies will have to take some of the lessons from Zynga if they want to succeed.
"Zynga made a bet to only develop on Facebook,"?Deven?Parekh, of?Insight Partners recently?told me. "It was a risky strategy."?And one that ultimately cost the company big time, once the relationship between the two fell apart.
In addition, he said, Zynga did not create games with long lifecycles. "They did not hold interest, they weren't deep," he said, and so casual gamers eventually fled.
In the coming year, other companies, such as Kixeye and Heyzap, will be able to grow better by doing the opposite of what Zynga did.
(Image source:?http://www.heyzap.com)
Source: http://vator.tv/news/2013-01-05-social-gaming-platform-heyzap-raises-43-million
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