Kabam News Bites

Launched our new FanSection sports trivia widgets this week: http://www.fansection.com/. This is the first time that users can take FanSection content off Facebook. on April 17

Was rooting for Michigan State, but our 180K UNC fans are buying a ton of championship gear at the FanSection FanShop. So I guess it worked out for the best. on April 06

Bracket Challenge app continues to perform. Ended up with 1.6 million total users and well over 1 million completed brackets. Also have sold thousands in tickets and merchandise. on March 30

Just blew through 700K total users of our Bracket Challenge app on Facebook. on March 16

DMNews posted a great interview with Watercooler CEO Kevin Chou yesterday. Interview focuses on our monetization efforts beyond advertising. So far that includes tickets and apparel. http://tinyurl.com/b6rhnu on March 10

Per my update yesterday about sports apparel sales, the FanSection FanShop is now officially live in time for March Madness. This is going to be a key focus for us throughout 2009. http://fansection.teamfanshop.com. We're also relaunching our TV shop with Delivery Agent. on March 06

Officially signed a partnership agreement with Team Fan Shop today to be the official merchandising partner of our FanSection sports apps. The new revenue stream is key our business as we expand beyond just advertising. March Madness is a great time to launch the partnership. on March 05

Great interview in OMMA of Disney EVP of Digital Media, Albert Cheng. Great quote about Watercooler and how ABC is partnering with us because we enable social activity around branded content. http://tinyurl.com/c9bdc9 on March 04

Signed our second pro sports team to a ticket sales contract - the New York Islanders. The first game we're promoting is Monday night vs the Avalanche, but more to come. Still talking to a dozen other teams as well. Stat tuned. on February 27

Just took a look a look at our Major League Baseball stats for the first time since Nov 2008. We've added over 530K new users to the MLB communities with absolutely no marketing from us. You gotta love viral growth. http://tinyurl.com/br4lq3 on February 25

The FanSection Bracket Challenge app is dominating similar apps from SI and CBS on Facebook. FanSection - 188K MAUs SI/Citizen Sports - 113K MAUs CBS - 33K MAUs Great post from AllFacebook on the growth and success so far: http://tinyurl.com/dn93zq on February 25

Our first foray into ticket sales with the LA Clippers went very well. We surpassed our original estimate by 100%. The next game is Celtics vs Clippers on 2/25. We're also working with the Islanders and possibly others very soon. on February 20

I'm especially pleased with this blog post today on the TVLoop Blog. It gets at the heart of the role that we can plan in advertising for brands looking to drive engagement across multiple platforms. http://tinyurl.com/dz46q9 on February 18

Excited to announce the launch of our 2009 Bracket Challenge today for FanSection. March Madness is just around the corner and we had ~450K users last year. Shooting for 750K users this time around. http://apps.facebook.com/thebracketchallenge on February 17

Ran a poll in the TVLoop community about the digital TV transition - 46% of users say the date should not have been moved, 27% say there should be no transition at all, and 15% don't know what it is. See the complete blog post here: http://tinyurl.com/6dbcps. on February 15

Conversational marketing is what we do best for our advertisers. We strive to integrate brands into the core user experience to make them part of the conversation going on in our apps. Wrote a blog post last night that I think captures this nicely http://tinyurl.com/bp762p. on February 13

Good meeting today with a partner to discuss new ways to monetize our sports apps. Consumer Internet companies cannot live on advertising alone. More news on that later as we start firming up those plans. on February 11

Just found out that the special Super Bowl commercial page we created within our FanSection sports apps has generated over 800,000 page views. That's crazy considering it's something we through together the Friday before the game. Nice. on February 10

The Alex Rodriguez news has motivated Yankees and RedSox fans to share their opinion. So far 3000 Yankees fans have taken a poll and 71% forgive ARod. Meanwhile, 12,000 RedSox fans have passed on the "Long Live A-Fraud" wave. Definitely a difference in opinion. on February 10

The Watercooler blogs are really starting to come along and increasing in readership. If you want a daily dose of stats and happenings at Watercooler, check out the TVLoop and FanSection blogs: http://blog.tvloop.com and http://blog.fansection.com. on February 07

Watercooler just overtook LinkedIn for the #11 spot among Facebook developers in terms of MAUs. Next up, the 8 million mark. http://www.appdata.com/ on February 06

Taking a look at our FanSection sports apps on Facebook. Monthly Active Users are up over 75% since the beginning of the year. As a whole, Watercooler is currently ranked #12 among Facebook app developers with 7.8 million MAUs. on February 05

Watercooler CEO, Kevin Chou was interviewed yesterday by Tracy Swedlow of InteractiveTV Today for her radio show/podcast. Topics covered include: social media advertising, role of TV on the Web, and more. Listen to the interview from the TVLoop blog. http://tinyurl.com/caf5qx on February 04

Testing the ability to sell merchandise to our users via a Steelers promotion with TeamFanShop.com. So far we've driven $15,000 in sales which isn't bad for a last minute promotion that just came together on Friday. Nice proof point for expanding our revenue model. on February 03

Wrapping up a hugely successful NFL season today after last night's Super Bowl. We added 2 million new users to our NFL apps on Facebook this season - 85% growth. Steelers grew 173% and Cardinals grew 3500%. on February 02

Working on setting up the Watercooler profile at Vator.tv while continue to get things ready for some Super Bowl promos tomorrow. Stay tuned. on January 31