Announces Long Tail Advertising Partnership with RockYou. Developers go ga-ga over “DevShare” – a new money-making toolkit for widgets.
San Francisco, Calif. – September 26, 2007 – Widgetbox, operator of the world’s largest distributed marketplace for widgets, announced today that the Widgetbox community has created more than 200 Facebook applications in the first week since it quietly launched the App Accelerator™. The latest product from the community-based widget marketplace was previewed on the site last week. The App Accelerator is available to all members of the Widgetbox community. Since last week’s preview, over 100 community members turned their widgets into Facebook applications.
Widgetbox also announced a new revenue toolkit for widget developers known as DevShare™. The first component of DevShare is a one-of-a-kind advertising partnership between RockYou, a leading developer and publisher of widgets and applications across social networks, and Widgetbox. Under terms of the relationship, RockYou will sell advertising on applications created through Widgetbox’s App Accelerator. Widgetbox will in turn share ad revenue 50-50 with the developer. According to Widgetbox, 80% of community members participating in the preview opted into DevShare.
“Widgetbox is a strategic partner for RockYou and we are pleased to collaborate with them on this exciting program,” said Lance Tokuda, CEO and co-founder of RockYou. “Our combined menu of applications across various Internet channels make for a powerful distribution network.”
Commenting on the company’s progress, Board member and interim CEO, Michael Dearing, said, “Widgetbox is a broad and diverse community of widget makers and widget users across 130,000 domains. Diversity makes for a healthy ecosystem. Now we’re bringing that long tail of widgets into the social networks. Facebook is just the natural place to start and RockYou is an ideal partner.” Dearing was formerly a senior executive at eBay (NASDAQ – EBAY) and is also a Consulting Associate Professor at Stanford University.
Earlier this year, the company announced that it had received Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Joining the Board at that time were Dearing, an independent investor, Jim Goetz of Sequoia Capital, and Mitchell Kertzman of Hummer Winblad. The company said it will use the capital to support accelerated development of its web-based product and services. The amount of funding was not disclosed.
About Widgetbox:
Widgetbox helps people express, connect, create and inform using web widgets that can be easily shared and distributed anywhere on the web. Widgetbox has the largest selection of web widgets and the most comprehensive set of tools for the management and distribution of your web widgets. Widgetbox serves both the developers and consumers of widgets. For more information, please see www.widgetbox.com.
About RockYou:
RockYou is a leading provider of applications and widgets on the web. RockYou widgets include photo slideshows, glitter text, customized Facebook applications and voicemail accessories that are simple to use and enable people to frequently refresh their online style. Founded in 2006, RockYou has over 29 million users, serving over 150 million widget views per day in more than 200 countries. RockYou applications are customized for easy integration across all social networks including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Tagged and hi5. RockYou’s cost-effective, results-focused advertising platform is the largest Ad Network on Facebook and the most dynamic method for rapidly acquiring Facebook application users. New applications can reach over 100k users in 24 hours, spanning a suite of applications across multiple publishing partners. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, RockYou is funded by Sequoia Capital, Partech International and Lightspeed Venture Partners. To learn more about RockYou please visit http://rockyou.com/corp/about.php
About Sequoia Capital:
Sequoia Capital provides startup venture capital for very smart people who want to turn ideas into companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs", Sequoia Capital's Partners have worked with innovators such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of nVIDIA, Michael Marks of Flextronics, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube, Steve Goldman and Sujal Patel of Isilon Systems and Dominic Orr and Keerti Melkote of Aruba Wireless Networks. To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit www.sequoiacap.com.
About Hummer Winblad Venture Partners:
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners was created in 1989 as the first venture capital firm focused exclusively on software. As the software industry grew from PC software to enterprise computing to Internet applications, Hummer Winblad has been at the forefront - funding the entrepreneurs and ideas that helped define these markets. The firm's goal is to provide the capital, experience, and vision that will enable its companies to become leaders in this new software economy. For more information on Hummer Winblad, visit www.humwin.com.
Widgetbox™, App Accelerator™, and DevShare™ are trademarks of Widgetbox, Inc. All other company names, product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contact:
Trevor Jonas
Bite Communications (for Widgetbox)
415-365-0360
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