HeyZap Launches A 'Meebo Bar' For Social Games

Jason Kincaid

Jason Kincaid worked as a writer for TechCrunch from April 2008 through 2012. He grew up in Danville, California and later relocated to UCLA in Los Angeles, California, where he studied biology with a minor in ‘Society and Genetics’. You can reach him at jkincaid@gmail.com → Learn More

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Web publishers looking to capitalize on the growth in social and casual gaming just got an easier way to integrate them into their sites. HeyZap, a platform that helps syndicate social and casual games and also offers expanded features like achievements, has just launched its Social Games Bar.  The bar is similar in appearance to the Meebo Bar — it sits at the bottom of the browser window and persists as you navigate through a publisher’s site. But the functionality is obviously quite different. The bar gives users access to 30,000 different social and casual games, some of which are tied to Facebook using Facebook Connect.

HeyZap cofounder Immad Akhund says that there are a few major benefits from the bar. First, it’s actually easier to integrate than HeyZap’s standard gaming widget, because publishers don’t have to worry about where they’re going to position it on their site (they just add a line of code and it appears at the bottom). And because the bar is always visible at the bottom of the page, users are more likely to click it.

He also says that all links shared through games launched by the HeyZap Bar link back to the publisher’s site, as opposed to the game’s Facebook page, which is where they often link to by default.   Finally, Publishers get a rev share on any virtual goods purchased through the games (which is true of the normal HeyZap widget as well).


Company: Heyzap
Website: heyzap.com
Launch Date: 2009
Funding: $7.97M

Heyzap is a social discovery platform for mobile and the largest social network for Android/iPhone mobile gamers. Heyzap is based on San Francisco and was founded in 2009 by Jude Gomila and Immad Akhund. Heyzap provides users with a way to check-in to their favorite games, discover games and join a massive community of mobile gamers. Heyzap allows users to let other gamers know what they are playing, leave or browse tips for their favorite games, and earn badges. For mobile...

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