Posts Tagged ‘digital river’

Digital River Acquires fatfoogoo

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

MINNEAPOLIS – May 5, 2010 – Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV ), a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions, announced that it has acquired fatfoogoo, a Europe-based, in-game and online commerce service provider. The combined forces of Digital River’s e-commerce solutions with fatfoogoo’s technology will offer game publishers and developers an unparalleled, single e-commerce connection to manage their online product sales both in-store and in-game.

logo_dr“The sale of virtual goods through micro transactions continues to grow in popularity with consumers and is establishing new revenue models for the games industry,” said Joel Ronning, CEO of Digital River. “With the addition of fatfoogoo, we’ve strengthened our commitment to the gaming marketplace. We believe the combination of our in-game and in-store commerce solution along with our subscription management capabilities will be unmatched in the industry. This partnership continues our promise to provide existing and future clients with the leading e-commerce technology and expertise they expect from Digital River.”

The e-commerce solutions from Digital River and fatfoogoo are easily integrated to offer game publishers all the scalability and reliability of a proven in-store platform along with turn-key technology designed to operate a successful in-game marketplace. In addition to providing in-game store functions, such as global payments and inventory management, the solution supports the use of virtual goods and currencies, electronic wallets, peer-to-peer marketplaces and auction capabilities.

Digital River’s fatfoogoo business unit will continue to operate out of its current location in Vienna, Austria. fatfoogoo will deliver its technology as an integrated part of Digital River’s e-commerce offering for games as well as a stand-alone solution.

“We are excited to join Digital River’s family of companies. This acquisition provides fatfoogoo with the backing of a proven e-commerce leader and enhances our leadership in the European market,” said Martin Herdina, fatfoogoo’s CEO. “Together we’re positioned to lead the future of in-game commerce with a solution that will uniquely stand out in a competitive marketplace.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Digital River acquired fatfoogoo as part of a cash transaction for approximately $10 million. The agreement also provides fatfoogoo shareholders with an earn-out opportunity based on the fatfoogoo business unit achieving certain performance targets. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

 

fatfoogoo Powers mEgo’s New Virtual Goods Storefront

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

fatfoogoo’s Microtransaction Ecosystem Bolsters mEgo’s Avatar Engine,
Tapping into the Rapidly Growing and Lucrative Virtual Goods Market

fatfoogoo, the leading provider of in-game and online commerce ecosystems, today announced it is powering mEgo’s smart virtual goods marketplace, where users can style, animate and accessorize their online personal profile. mEgo is a first-of-its-kind, portable multimedia profile aggregator designed to manage and integrate one’s online identity into a highly personalized avatar through a patent pending user interface.  More than 1.25 million mEgos are currently found on more than 650 social networks, including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Flickr.  With added customization and content purchase abilities made possible by fatfoogoo’s commerce technology, mEgo is participating in the highly lucrative market for virtual goods. Already part of a growing trend, the Gartner Group predicts that in 2011, more than 80% of active Internet users will have an avatar.

mego_logo_rasterWith fatfoogoo’s commerce system, mEgo users can purchase a vast number of virtual goods – such as clothes, accessories, background displays, animations and featured content – available in the storefront on mEgo.com or its integrated websites.  The smart storefront allows users to dress by brand, theme, price-point, popularity, auction and rarity.  Through the mEgo user interface, consumers click on the virtual good on the avatar to learn more about the item and click-through to purchase the real-world item.

fatfoogoo is the leading monetization software provider handling microtransactions, subscriptions, virtual currencies, e-wallets, goods trading and more. Its core competencies matched mEgo’s needs – supporting global online transactions with expertise in telecom, an area of growth for mEgo. mEgo and its new virtual goods marketplace will soon be available on mobile devices, including the iPhone, as well on IM services.

“The immense undertaking in managing mEgo’s storefront filled with limitless items, global currency exchange and staying true to a particular brand was easily accomplished with fatfoogoo’s commerce platform,” said Martin Herdina, co-founder and CEO, fatfoogoo. “As the virtual goods industry rapidly expands beyond virtual worlds to casual and hardcore games, online stores and social networks like mEgo, companies depend on our technology and experience to increase the key factors for success – low fraud rate, global economic management and shortened development time. It literally pays to outsource commerce needs.”

By outsourcing the marketplace to fatfoogoo, mEgo was able to quickly have a robust virtual goods offering.  More importantly, with fatfoogoo’s technology and best practices, mEgo can rely on low fraud rates and international monetary compliance.

mego_pay

“We are very excited to work with fatfoogoo and provide our users with a proven and tangible global commerce solution,” said Ariel McNichol, mEgo co-founder and co-CEO.  “Tapping into fatfoogoo’s e-commerce platform, our virtual goods storefront has come to market six months to a year sooner than if we had to build the system ourselves – a win-win for everyone.”

As the company solves the problem of having to create and maintain different profiles on multiple social networks and sites, it keeps its leading edge with the launch of its new online storefront and additional avatar functionality. mEgo is currently developing a contextual suggestion feature that will tap into profile data to offer users relevant utilities, content and products.

In recent news, fatfoogoo announced its partnership with Digital River. Combined, the two companies will provide on-demand e-commerce and in-game commerce for publishers on a global scale. Additionally, fatfoogoo is the exclusive provider of in-game commerce for Rebel Monkey’s virtual world, CampFu, now with more than 100,000 players. Its white-label commerce system is a custom turnkey solution for publishers and developers that want to enhance the online experience for gamers or online users in any industry.

 

fatfoogoo announces partnership with Digital River

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

We’re pleased to announce our new partnership with e-commerce provider Digital River.  This new partnership provides game publishers with a unique end-to-end in-game online store solution with all the scalability and reliability of a proven in-game marketplace.  Not only providing storefront capabilities, the fatfoogoo/Digital River solution provides for global payments and inventory management, as well as the use of virtual goods and currencies, electronic wallets (gwallet technology), secondary (peer-to-peer) marketplaces and auction functionality.

“We are excited to partner with Digital River to deliver an industry leading commerce solution that best services online stores and in-game marketplaces for the gaming community,” remarks Martin Herdina, fatfoogoo CEO.  “Our on-demand service models drive global revenue opportunities and operational efficiencies while reducing risk – all value propositions that are increasingly attractive to companies in these uncertain economic times.  We intend to leverage these natural synergies between our business to the full advantage of our clients.”

The fatfoogoo technology inclusion to Digital River’s portfolio of offerings now makes the picture complete for any games developer.  Naturally they provide e-commerce and promotional technologies, online payment support for microtransactions via NetGiro, community management tools provided by PlayXpert, and subscription billing tools through THINK subscriptions.  The fatfoogoo solution provides the technology to now enable in-game sales of virtual goods for real money transactions.

“This partnership is another indicator of Digital River’s deep commitment to the game industry,” said Jeff Hemenway, Digital River’s group vice president of games.  “In-game commerce in addition to digital downloads and subscriptions are quickly emerging as key strategies for driving game revenue.  Our acquisition of THINK subscriptions last year and our integrated partnership with fatfoogoo now give us best-of-breed solutions to help our gaming client maximize revenue opportunities.”

As part of the agreement between the companies, Digital River has made an equity investment in fatfoogoo. This investment is part of what we both plan to be a broader strategic partnership that includes an integrated service offering and a reseller relationship.

This announcement couldn’t have come at a better time for game developers.  According to a recent Think Service Game Group’s study, outsourcing game development is on a steady rise, with 86 percent of all developers surveyed reporting that they use outsourcing.  The fatfoogoo/Digital River partnership should now be seen as a primary outsourcing destination for game developers looking for a total in-game and online store management solution.

“This is a 1+1=7 situation, where a client of the combined fatfoogoo/Digital River solution gets much more than that client could obtain by partnering with either company individually,” says Herdina.

To find out more about fatfoogoo’s technology and offerings, please visit our solutions section.