RockYou gets $10M for social app development

Ronny Kerr · June 8, 2010 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/1010

Social network app developer gets a fifth round of funding for further Asia expansion

RockYouRockYou, a social networking developer of apps and ad widgets, has raised a $10 million Series E round of funding from SoftBank and has acquired a majority stake in its joint venture, RockYou Asia.

The San Mateo, CA-based startup last picked up a $50 million Series D, also from SoftBank, in November 2009. Tthe company has raised a total of $127 million to date from investors like Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Partech International, DCM and SK Telecom.

RockYou plans to use the extra funding to continue partnering with game developers across Asia, monetizing, licensing, and publishing games globally.

“We’ve always been very excited about the Asia market and believe that the market for social applications will really heat up in the coming months,” said Jia Shen, founder of RockYou. “With the further alignment between RockYou and RockYou Asia we can have an increasingly significant impact on the Asia social gaming market and further engage the world through social media.”

RockYou Asia has already met with great success in Japan, Korea, and China, according to the company.

The funding news follows quickly on news that SoftBank, one of RockYou's primary investors, is close to announcing a deal with Zynga to ease the massively popular social gaming startup into the Asian market. Zynga lately has taken multiple steps to diversify its business, and an international expansion would also greatly benefit the company, already estimated to be worth upwards of $5 billion.

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Zynga is the largest social gaming company with 8.5 million daily users and 45 million monthly users.  Zynga’s games are available on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Yahoo! and the iPhone, and include Texas Hold’Em Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Vampires, Street Racing, Scramble and Word Twist.  The company is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, IVP, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Pilot Group, Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel.  Zynga is headquartered at the Chip Factory in San Francisco.  For more information, please visit www.zynga.com.

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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 35 million users, serving over 180 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.