Counting your change in a virtual world - Sometrics overview.
Have you ever tried to explain what you did for a living to a family member or friend? And the reply after you explain what you do for a living usually has this response: “So, when you are getting a real job?” For Ian Swanson, CEO of Sometrics (www.sometrics.com), this conversation rings true for many occasions. Ian co-found the company, which pioneered social intelligence. The company’s platform combines deep, relevant social analytics with precision-targeted ad serving capabilities to help developers and brands monetize the social web. The company has now adapted its advanced targeting and optimization expertise to give online game developers the first-ever full-service offer and payment management solution. Sometrics provides one place to manage everything: all the ads, all the offers, and all the offer networks. The system is supercharged with powerful analytics capabilities that help publishers/developers analyze all activity, down to detailed demographics. Sometrics also provides its own industry-leading offer solution product – with more than 4,000 worldwide offers targeted to users based on data like age, interests, country of origin and more – all gathered via the company’s platform.
It is no wonder that the company has a sweet spot for additional funding. The company has secured a Series B round of venture capital, led by Walt Disney Company-affiliated Steamboat Ventures and joined by previous investors The Mail Room Fund and Greycroft Partners. In total, $4 million was injected into the fledgling company, we’ve learned.
That brings the total invested in the startup to $5.55 million. The first round was raised back in May 2008. It was the first investment made by The Mail Room Fund, a joint venture fund established by William Morris Agency, Accel Partners and Venrock.
Sometrics is one of many companies looking to optimize the way social networks, gaming platforms and virtual worlds are being monetized. The startup markets tools that allow publishers and brands to manage ad inventory across social web platforms, optimize campaigns through audience analysis and targeting, as well as gain ’social intelligence’ about the performance of those campaigns through detailed analytics.
The latter part is what the company started out with; by giving social app developers a way get an overview of the number of page views and unique visits, installs and uninstalls, age of users, gender of users, number of friends, location of users and more for their Facebook and MySpace apps.
The company has since diversified and broadened its offering, and now does a little bit of everything that publishers and advertisers can tap into to get more ROI from advertising campaigns on social gaming sites, community sites and from sales of virtual goods across the board. Sometrics appears to be gravitating towards a focus on game developers, particularly with its Virtual Currency Manager product. The startup already boasts a number of partnerships with players in the online gaming industry, such as Playdom and Outspark.
Virtual goods and social advertising is an interesting field that’s poised for growth, but there’s a lot of competition in the space, with companies like SocialMedia.com and OfferPal Media offering services similar to what Sometrics markets. Maybe the pedigree of co-founder and CEO of Sometrics, Ian Swanson, can help the company stand out among them; Swanson used to run business development for AOL-owned Userplane and was an executive at Sprint before that.
Quick Glance on who decided to partner with Sometrics
Atlus Online
Atlus Online is the online interactive entertainment division of Atlus U.S.A., Inc., renowned for its proud tradition of publishing exceptional role-playing games with strong niche appeal. The Atlus library of critically acclaimed video games includes Odin Sphere, the Trauma Center series, and the award-winning Shin Megami Tensei series. More information can be found at http://www.atlusonline.com.
Ndoors Interactive
Ndoors Interactive is a leading global publisher of online games. With US headquarters in Los Angeles, Ndoors boasts an award-winning catalog of micro-transaction based free-to-play MMOG's. Ndoors' popular online games include the strategic turn-based MMORPG, Atlantica Online, the political and economic MMORPG, Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu, and the 2D side-scrolling MMORPG, Wonderking. More information is available at http://www.Ndoors.com.
ijji.com
ijji.com (www.ijji.com) is the leading portal for hardcore online gaming. Owned and operated by Irvine, Calif.-based NHN USA, Inc., ijji.com launched in 2006 and now boasts more than 8 million unique registered gamers. The portal hosts a diverse suite of hardcore, fast action free-to-play online games, each with an optional micro-transaction model. ijji.com’s extensive portfolio includes the renowned online games Lunia, GUNZ The Duel®, SOLDIER FRONT™ and DRIFT CITY™. The portal will soon include the highly-anticipated Unreal Engine 3- powered games Huxley: The Dystopia, a massively multi-player first-person shooter (MMOFPS), and Alliance of Valiant Arms, a multi-player online first-person shooter (MOFPS); in addition to the World War II-era MOFPS KARMA: Operation Barbarossa and the fantasy MMORPG Soul of the Ultimate Nation.
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