Careers at RockYou

Mission

RockYou’s mission is to engage the world through social and mobile games.

History

RockYou is an interactive media company that was founded in 2005 by Jia Shen and Lance Tokuda. It develops applications and hosts apps created by third-party publishers. The company’s first product was a slide show service; later offerings included text, voicemail, and photo services. It now primarily creates games.

RockYou’s early years were successful. It was one of the firms invited to take part in F8, a Facebook-hosted event unveiling an open platform for third parties to design apps for the social network. RockYou developed many products for the site, including Super Wall, Likeness, Hug Me, Birthdays, MyGifts, Vampires, and Emote. Within a matter of time, it became the top widget maker for Facebook in terms of total installations.

Early funding efforts also went very well. In 2007 it raised $16.5 million; this was followed by $52 million in 2008 and $50 million in 2009. Investors included Sequoia Capital, DCM Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Partech International, SoftBank, and Columbia Capital. In 2010 RockYou’s status as a major player became clear when it revealed its acquisitions of two game-designing studios, Playdemic and TirNua.

Benefits at RockYou

Business model of RockYou

Customer Segments

RockYou has a diversified business model, with two customer segments having clearly different needs:

  • Consumers: The company provides a wide selection of games for individuals to purchase and play.
  • Advertisers: The company enables companies to advertise their offerings within games to target consumers.

Value Proposition

RockYou offers three primary value propositions: accessibility, performance, and brand/status.

The company’s platform creates accessibility for consumers by including a vast range of game titles in numerous genres, making it one of the most comprehensive sources for game content. At the same time, it creates accessibility for advertisers, as it has a monthly audience of 75 million consumers worldwide (20 million of whom are in the U.S.) who are demographically diverse.

The company has an impressive performance record for advertisers. Video ads have high completion rates (over 70%, 30% higher than most competitors) and strong clickthrough rates (1%+, 50% higher than most competitors). These figures are indicative of strong engagement among customers.

The company has a strong brand, as it features popular titles from some of the gaming industry’s top publishers, including Wooga, Zynga, and Social Point. Its platform also features its own in-demand titles such as Zoo World and Bingo. RockYou’s renown has led to placement on a number of prominent lists. For example, it is ranked in the Top 10 of comScore’s Top 100 Video Properties.

Channels

RockYou’s main channel is direct sales, through which it contacts potential advertisers. Other key channels are its website and social media pages, through which it markets its offerings.

Customer Relationships

RockYou’s customer relationship is primarily of a self-service nature. Customers utilize the service through the main platform while having limited interaction with employees.

That said, there is also a personal assistance component, as the company offers phone and e-mail support, and a community component, as its website features a forum where customers can answer each others’ questions.

Key Activities

RockYou’s business model primarily involves maintaining a network on which publishers make their games available to consumers and advertisers promote their offerings. The network includes Facebook and other social networks and mobile platforms. The company also designs its own games, but primarily relies on the products of third parties.

Key Partners

RockYou’s main partners are the game publishers/developers who make their products available on the company’s network. Partners include Zynga, Wooga, and Social Point.

Key Resources

RockYou’s main resources are its human resources. These include product managers, engineers who handle technical concerns, and sales/marketing staff who acquire new customers.

The company also relies on financial resources in the form of investors. It has raised $162.7 million from 12 investors as of March 2015.

Cost Structure

RockYou has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation and low-price value propositions. Its biggest cost driver is likely sales/marketing expenses, a fixed cost. Other major drivers are in the areas of customer support/operations and product development, also fixed costs.

Revenue Streams

RockYou has two revenue streams: game/application purchase revenues and advertiser revenues. The company’s advertiser base includes Verizon, Universal, UbiSoft, P&G, Nestle, Kohl’s, and Dell. No information is available regarding pricing.

Our team

Lisa Marino,
CEO

info: Lisa earned an MBA from Stanford University's School of Business and a Bachelor's degree in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She previously served as COO and VP of Sales at RockYou, and as National Sales Manager at eBay Motors.

Josh Grant,
Chief Operating Officer

info: Josh earned an undergraduate degree in Economics at Claremont McKenna College. He previously served as COO at Sonic Boom, VP of Content Strategy and Acquisition at Vivendi Games Mobile, and as a Senior Associate at Argo Global Capital.

Sean Crawford,
Chief Media Officer

info: Sean previously worked as SVP, Global Head of Inventory and VP of International Business and Emerging Platforms at AOL/Adap.tv; Senior Director of International Strategy and Operations at Tribal Fusion; and Director of Business Development at Adzilla.

Mei Costello,
Chief Compliance Officer

info: Mei earned a BBA in Accounting from the University of Hawaii. She previously worked in compliance at online game publisher Gala-Net and served as Controller at Speck. She oversees RockYou’s administrative and financial needs.