Irrepressible widget-maker RockYou aims at Asia, raises $17M
RockYou, a company that started out two years ago making simple slideshow widgets for MySpace, and more recently applications on Facebook and other rival social networks, is now invading Asia. — It has taken on strategic funding …
Context & Ripple Effects
RockYou’s path has moved from MySpace slideshow and customization widgets to a growing slate of Facebook applications, following its early run of Facebook hits. Coverage in June also put $35 million behind its social-network app business, making the new strategic funding a geographic extension of an already multi-network strategy.
The Asian push matters because RockYou is no longer tied to a single social-network audience: it is using capital to carry an app-development model built on MySpace and Facebook into another market.
First-order effects
- RockYou gains $17 million in strategic funding to support its expansion into Asia while continuing to build applications for Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks.
Second-order effects
- Facebook and MySpace face a better-funded application developer whose distribution strategy spans competing networks, increasing the value of maintaining developer access and audience reach.
Third-order effects
- If multi-network app makers can use strategic financing to enter new regions, social-network applications may become a more global business than any one platform’s developer ecosystem.
The trend: Social-network app developers are using cross-platform distribution and outside capital to turn lightweight widgets into international businesses.