Virtual Reality Social Games Worlds Networks can at times be busier than Grand Central at 5:09 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  There are lots of players, each with their own unique take and slice on their specific niche.  And while playfish has certainly made a lot of noise over the past few weeks, it’s often the guys in the back of the room that you’ve got to look out for.  RockYou, please step forward.

RockYou is a self described, “innovator, creator, and distributor of widgets and applications on the social web.”  Try saying that one 5 times fast.  In other words, RockYou creates a lot of those cool widgets and apps that are served up daily every time you log in to your facebook account.  RockYou is the creator of popular apps including SuperWall, SuperPets, Likeness, and HugMe while their widget stable includes Slideshows and Corkboard.  Sound familiar, chances are you’ve used one or RockYou’s apps recently?   They also made waves back in July with the purchase of popular apps Speed Racing and Pieces of Flair.  According to insidefacebook.com, at the time of acquisition #11 app Pieces of Flair was clocking 475,000 daily users, and # 27 Speed Racing weighing in with 200,000 users per day.

Insidesocialgames.com’s Top MySpace games for September 24, 2008 places 2 of the top 12 belonging to RockYou, and they consistently rank high on the Facebook Most Active Users directory (Superwall, Hugme, Pieces of Flare, Likeness, and Birthday Cards all ranking in the top 28).

In addition, RockYou also specializes in creating customized branding and marketing solutions that reach consumers in a medium that the feel comfortable with and used to via applications.  They’ve developed applications for any social network including Hi5, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Bebo, and Friendster.  Reaching the masses via advertisement through entertainment is nothing new, but few companies are able to do it as well as RockYou.

There has been a bit of confusion regarding just what slice of the social networking pie RockYou is after, as CEO Lance Tokuda was quoted as saying “ We want to be like the Electronic Arts of social networks, and build games for social networks,” at the Startonomics conference in San Francisco in the beginning of October.  While at the same time Brett Errill reported over at his blog that RockYou is still focusing its efforts on their ad network.

Whether Tokuda’s statement was taken out of context or not, I say: Does it matter?  With monetization models popping up all over the place, along with Google’s own entry into the game monetization via advertising, the way I see it, RockYou is already leaps and bounds ahead of their competitors.  With highly popular widgets and applications perfectly positioned in front of users of some of the world’s highest trafficked websites, along with the already existing ad network specialty, RockYou is well on track to becoming a mighty force to be reckoned with.

Find out more about RockYou by visiting them at www.RockYou.com.