Zynga's Treasure Isle: Economies of Scale in a Social World

There are two camps in the world of social gaming:- One side thinks that it has been won outright by Zynga - The other side believes that we are in the early innings of a nine-inning game No matter where you fall on this spectrum, it is clear that Zynga benefits greatly from their massive userbase (which they worked hard to amass). It is also clear that this is a major competitive advantage precisely because it is a tremendous lever to launch new titles.

Ever watched a popular television show or event and seen the constant reminder of an upcoming show on that same network? This is more powerful because it is in-browser, social and can be cleverly incentivized / connected.

Proof: Zynga's newest title Treasure Isle is days old (launched April 6). It now has roughly 17m monthly actives and 7m daily actives. Not only does that make Treasure Isle the fastest growing Facebook App, it makes it the 16th biggest game on Facebook ... in a matter of days.

It of course helps that Treasure Isle is very well done - a generational improvement over Farmville and Cafe World. But, as many developers know well, audience collection is often tougher than building the game. Zynga has done both:

Sprout Enables HTML5 & Flash Ads - Simultaneously

After last week's Apple announcement, I declared HTML5 as one of the winners. Generally, I believe that mobile represents a significant change in our web usage / consumption... and HTML5 plays an increasingly important role in that experience. This certainly is true for publishers...

... and increasingly true for advertisers - who have to create units that intelligently work in different formats, locations, etc. Sprout's now allows simple creation of rich-ad units that work in both HTML5 and Flash.

The motto: 'Build once. Publish anywhere.'

Below is a demo of Sprout's 'Engage Ads' platform - showcasing the units in both HTML5 and Flash.

View more on TechCrunch: "Sprout Now Lets You Simultaneously Build Rich Ads In Both HTML5 And Flash"

Join Two Amazing Companies: Formpsring and ShoeDazzle

I have been slow to update my blog's "job board"... but have two great companies and opportunities to add to the list. I am fortunate to spend time with each of these companies: excellent products, teams and communities. Job specs are below. If you are interested in either company, please let me know directly: rspoon @ polarisventures

Formspring is a social question & answer service that has seen meteoric growth (my blog post here). They are looking for engineers and designers to join them in San Francisco. It is a terrific opportunity to be part of a fast-growing company and build large, impactful products that touch 10m's of users:

- Jr. Software Engineer (PHP) - Senior Designer - Sr. Software Engineer (PHP) - Systems Engineer

ShoeDazzle is a monthly online shoe society, working with a team of Hollywood stylists to choose shoes for each member every month based on the member’s unique fashion personality. ShoeDazzle delivers unique products (stylized shoes) in a unique experience (monthly and at a fixed price of $39.95)... and their community is active, passionate and excited (50,000+ Facebook Fans).

ShoeDazzle is looking for a Director of Social Media & Community. Details are below:

The Director of Community and Social Media will be ShoeDazzle’s social media maven. This person will drive the development and implementation of all social media marketing programs and expand ShoeDazzle’s web presence and user base. The position takes ownership of all marketing efforts on social mediums including blogs and viral marketing campaigns for ShoeDazzle.

Responsibilities - Create and execute ShoeDazzle’s social media strategy that will exponentially grow the user base - Be the company’s expert on understanding social media marketing and functionality on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, and other core social platforms. - Responsible for aggressively using social media to drive consumer engagement and grow ShoeDazzle’s online community. - Produce innovative, efficient and measurable social media programs that will engage ShoeDazzle’s users - Drive viral marketing campaigns using social networking tools - Develop and drive events, contests, promotions and incentives to keep the ShoeDazzle community actively engaged - Work cross-functionally with the Marketing, PR and Creative teams to develop tools to support social media initiatives (i.e. landing pages for social media contests, offline promotions, etc) - Increase customer life time value through targeted customer communications and appropriate incentives and promotions - Managed and produce regular contributions to blogs and social networks that will interact and communicate with the community, expanding ShoeDazzle’s web presence - Responsible for analyzing and monitoring web metrics (e.g. page views, Twitter followers, fans) and strategizing web content accordingly while providing reports to senior management - Identify and implement weekly, daily and often real time content updates - Stay up to date on social media tools online communities and share knowledge with the rest of the organization

Experience - 5-7 years of online marketing experience with 2-3 years of social media marketing preferred - Possess a keen understanding of social media’s added value to ShoeDazzle’s product offering since it is an integral part of how customers engage with the company - Expertise around crafting and executing user acquisition and retention campaigns on social media platforms - Demonstrated ability to develop and execute marketing strategies, with measurable and consistent results - Ability to manage social applications effectively with an expert understanding of the technologies deployed by social media - Deep understanding of social network structures with experience effectively using social media/Web 2.0 tools to effectively communicate and build relationships - Familiarity with dynamics of ROI/metrics related to social media channels

Skills

- An analytical mindset is a MUST! It is critical this person test, test and retest marketing campaigns - A charismatic, credible communicator who can lead by example - Have excellent communication skills – written, verbal, presentation and interpersonal - Strong organizational skills with attention to detail, operates with urgency, focus and discipline - Have the ability to thrive in a high energy, fast growth, entrepreneurial environment - Hands-on; completes tasks and dependable - Strong team player who can build strong relationships at all levels of the organization - A cost conscious, proactive problem solver who can maximize the resources of a start-up - Ethical, fair and of high integrity

Compensation: VERY competitive + equity

Google's Q1: 60,000 Android Devices Activated Daily; AdSense Revenue Growth (+24%)

During their Q1 earnings announcements, Google revealed some good tidbits about their business and strategic initiatives... which clearly include Android and Chrome:

- 34 devices from 12 OEMs are Android operated - 60,000 Android devices are sold and activated daily... that's a run-rate of 21m / yr - which is an Apple-worthy number - 38,000 Android apps - which is +70% quarter over quarter - With Android, Google is focused on "openness" of market and platform - Nexus One is "profitable" One other interesting note from the Google search business - Google-owned properties drove $4.44B in revenue (+20%) - AdSense is $2.04B (+24%)

More from TechCrunch and PaidContent

Facebook Testing New Feed Posts to Drive Additional Comments?

It appears as though Facebook experimenting with new formats of news feed 'announcements' to escalate noteworthy, relevant content to your "top news" feed? This is the first time I have seen notifications like this via my Facebook Feed: essentially noting that two friends of mine have commented on an active post. It's interesting for a few reasons:

First, Dave McClure is a Facebook friend of mine as well... so his article already appeared in my feed. Second, the assumption must be that I am more likely to find it interesting and contribute to it because friends have actively participated. In fact, the newsfeed had already shown me McClure's post and then, on my second visit to Facebook, I got the "your friends commented on Dave McClure's link" alert. Good assumption by Facebook by the way.

These updates are usually reserved for the "most recent" feed and are tied to friend requests, calendar RSVPs, or wall-to-wall posts. I have not yet grouped alerts of friends who commented on a thread... interesting.

Also, very much worth reading Dave McClure's actual post - rather than my analysis of how it appears in my Facebook feed!

The original Dave McClure post which appeared in my Newsfeed prior to the getting the above feed post:

E-Commerce on the iPad: Gilt Group & eBay Help Us Imagine

Not because I shop regularly on Gilt Group or eBay... But I encourage iPad users and folks within e-commerce to download their iPad apps... Because it represents that potential of what e-commerce can look like atop the iPad (or extracted beyond: our new wave of computing / mobile devices).

With its large, crystal clear and touch-enabled screen, the iPad enables developers and brands to think more creatively... and in the same way that we were all encourage to think about consumers in the transition from web to mobile browser / app - we again have that same opportunity. So with Gilt Group and eBay, we have two iPad applications that were available on launch, sit in the iTunes top twenty apps and provide unique, powerful experiences different than the web or iPhone apps. These are good directional glimpses of e-commerce on the iPad:

- super simple layouts with very clear action items: browse and bid/buy - both have huge, colorful pictures - with color, layout and clear actions, both encourage serendipitous browsing - images are highly interactive - swipe them to see additional views - Gilt's navigation is nested and reminiscent of the iPad's email system - very clever - Gilt also uses the push notifications to alert users of new sales (interesting concept for flash sales, low inventory, etc) - Gilt provides an incentive / reward for download: iPad owners get to circumvent the 'exclusive' invite process and register directly

PR for Startups: Dogpatch Labs Event with VentureBeat & TechCrunch

Wednesday evening, Dogpatch Labs hosted a "PR for Startups" event alongside Anthony Ha of VentureBeat and Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch. Topics included: - what is newsworthy - how and when to engage press / bloggers - who to engage and with what tact - when to use internal vs. external PR leads

Below is a list of 11 great takeaways written by David Hua of Wellsphere and Health Central. The pictures are from Dogpatch resident Art Chang (of FanPulse). Art also has a list of six takeaways from the evening - available on his blog.

Takeaways from PR for Startups Event (by David Hua)

1. Short and Sweet - Send concise emails stating what your company does and why it is interesting. 48-72 hours of notice before a launch is recommended.

2. Video Walkthroughs - Emails with a youtube video walkthrough (1-2min) is helpful

3. The Elephant in the Room - Don't be afraid to compare yourself with the competitor. Do show how you are different.

4. Pay attention to the Calendar - Plan your launch with the calendar in mind. Do not release your news around big events, announcements, or a busy day of news.

5. A Day in the Life - Tech Bloggers put out 3-6 posts a day. If it is a slow day for them, email them something interesting and cc their tips@URL.com email (launches, acquisitions, and funding are big news items)

6. Headlines - Don't suggest one and don't use a misleading subject line, it's annoying

7. Assets Ready - In the follow up email or phone call with the writer, make sure you send an email with screen shots, company information, and video (optional).

8. Build relationships - If you know something interesting that doesn't pertain to your company, send the tip along to the writer, they are helpful.

9. Meetups - Invitations for lunch, dinner, and events are welcomed

10. Clear communication every step of the way - Be very clear what you mean about "exclusive". (i.e How long a particular writer has an exclusive for? Notification if you are moving on with the news to another publication.)

11. Traffic Observations – Techcrunch sends firehose amounts of traffic over the course of a few days whereas VentureBeat sends a consistent amount of traffic over a longer period of time

iPhone OS 4: Five Takeaways

Today Apple announced iPhone OS 4 - which ships in the summer for the iPhone and iPod Touch and in the winter for the iPad. Lots of incremental and much needed changes (ie App Folders) but a few significant updates for consumers AND developers:

1. Multitasking. ... and ... 2. Background Tasks (consumers) We have asked for it essentially since Pandora's app launched... you will be able to run background services for: - audio (ie Pandora - a huge winner today) - voip (ie Skype) - location (ie directions, maps)

3. Enhanced Mail (consumers) This is particularly important for iPad users: multiple Exchange accounts, threaded conversation, improved attachments, etc.

4. iAd (developers) We knew this was coming with Apple's recent Quattro acquisition... and it arrived today. Apple will become an ad platform for the app ecosystem: selling and hosting the ads on a 40/60 split (40 to Apple). Ads are fully interactive and done in HTML5 (another big win for HTML5).

Not only is this an opportunity for HTML5 developers and web marketers, it is an opportunity for app developers to reach new users and drive downloads. Powerful.

5. Game Center (developers) Traditionally, mobile apps have not been as 'viral' as Facebook apps... with iAd and Game Center there are new ways for developers to drive adoption. Game Center is Apple's take on Xbox Live: a gallery for players, leaderboards, achievements, etc - effectively a heightened platform to foster game mechanics and drive usage.

More reviews at: Gizmodo / Engadget / TechCrunch / VentureBeat

iBooks: iPad's Book Experience Stomps Kindle's

I have long wanted an Amazon Kindle, but held out because of the looming iPad. Despite arriving a year longer than I initially assumed / hoped, I am glad that I waited as the iPad's book experience is exceptional. The biggest difference: the iPad's big, gorgeous screen makes content (web, apps, books) look stunning. Whether it is the pre-installed Winnie the Pooh book, Marvel Comics or Chelsea Handler, the book looks great. Furthermore, because of the screen's real-estate and ability to be viewed in landscape vs. portrait, it really does feel like a normal book (whereas the Kindle at times feels small and full of compressed pages). Two other difference is of course the platform. Apple pre-installed the Winnie the Pooh book because it demonstrates what publishers can do with this device. The Pooh book has graphics that are rich, colorful and wrapped in text. No other device currently supports that... but it's just the beginning - publishers could embed interactive media or create content that is dynamic based on user input. Just as the iPad represents numerous opportunities for magazines and newspapers - book publishers have similar freedom to think big and innovate.

Lastly, the book experience really is slick. The device feels great in the hand, but it's the navigation, bookmarking, searching and ability to rotate the screen that makes it so intuitive and fun.

And finally two complaints:

1. The inventory of titles is not yet where the Amazon's is... this should change over time (after all, over 700,000 iPads moved yesterday!) 2. I find the bookshelf really corny... for some reason, it looks so hokey and makes the experience feel more childish.

Update: ReadWriteWeb has a good overview of reading on iPad.