myYearbook Lands Elusive OMGPOP As Games Partner

myYearbook and its 20 million users are about to get a lot more OMG and a healthy dose of POP as talented games designers OMGPOP have agreed to release their games on myYearbook's newly opened application platform. OMGPOP has consistently been one of our favorite games portals here at Social Times, and we covered its battle with standard casual gaming portals last year. The game designers focus on fun realtime multiplayer games that require active participation and create a stronger community across their games. Will this lead to OMGPOP making more distribution deals in the future? myYearbook is a social network that has been steadily gaining traffic and making smart decisions about its site, and this latest move is no exception to that record. An open application platform has been a successful strategy for every social network that has tried it (well, maybe not LinkedIn), and signing an exclusive, elusive partner like OMGPOP will no doubt send a message that myYearbook is dedicated to high quality games. It seems that myYearbook is going to be ensuring the quality of each application maker, rather than letting just anybody create applications. The first games that will be released will be OMGPOP's Balloono, Draw My Thing, Hover Kart Racing games, and they'll be availablle later this year. The games will also be integrated into myYearbook's virtual currency, Lunch Money. myYearbook members spend Lunch Money on gifts, causes, and other social games. "Our mission is to make myYearbook the premier destination for meeting new people," said Geoff Cook, CEO of myYearbook, "and that means building or partnering with the best social games. Half of our users are already playing social games on myYearbook like Blind Date, Owned and dozens of casual Games. Over one-third of our monetization is driven by virtual goods. We are thrilled to add OMGPOP to the platform because their games are not only fun but also encourage meeting new people. We will be looking to deepen our relationships with high-quality social games developers like OMGPOP over the next 12 to 18 months." OMGPOP is a notoriously quiet company, and they don't usually talk about their player numbers, but they tout that they have 1 million games played on the site, per day. A big question mark is why they have not made any attempt to bring their titles to the Facebook platform, even while the platform exploded.Â While their rationale hasn't been made public by the OMGPOP team, I assume it's because they want the site to retain it's community feel.Â This new move with myYearbook, however, shows that they may be expanding into new territory. "We're excited to partner with myYearbook, because of the complimentary value between our companies," said Wilson Kriegel, Chief Revenue Officer of OMGPOP. "Our virtual currency based, multiplayer games are a great fit for their community and provides an exciting opportunity to enrich their users' experience, while providing a new exciting monetization outlet."

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myYearbook Lands Elusive OMGPOP As Games Partner

Neil Vidyarthi

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