RockYou

Company name	RockYou
Company logo
Company type	Private
Foundation	Late 2005
Location	Redwood City, California
Key people	Lance Tokuda and Jia Shen: co-founders; Lisa Marino: CEO
Services	software applications
Url	www.rockyou.com
Website type	social networking
Language	English
Current status	active

Based in Redwood City, California, RockYou® is a developer of social games and advertising solutions for social media. RockYou is focused on the development of social game titles, including Gourmet Ranch™ and the Zoo World™ franchise. Their advertising products allow brands to interact with players in-game, adding value-per-engagement for both brands and users.

History

RockYou was founded in 2005 by Lance Tokuda and Jia Shen. The company's first product, a slide show service, was designed to work as an application widget. Later applications included various forms of voice mail, text and photo stylization, and games. As of December, 2007 it is the most successful widget maker for the Facebook platform in terms of total installations.

In May, 2007, RockYou was one of the companies invited to participate in F8, the event at which Facebook announced an open platform allowing third parties to develop and operate their own software applications on the Facebook website. Applications made for Facebook include Super Wall, "Hug Me", Likeness, Vampires, Slideshows, Birthdays, MyGifts, and Emote, among others.

RockYou then moved on to developing more complex social applications for Facebook, including Hero World, My Casino, Zoo World, and Toyland.

In October 2010, the company completed major layoffs and began to focus on higher quality social games. In November, 2010, the company's founder and CEO, Lance Tokuda, stepped down from his position as CEO.. Over the next several months, RockYou announced the acquisitions of two game development studios, TirNua and Playdemic, as well as development agreements for two new games from John Romero's social game studio Loot Drop. Playdemic's first game, Gourmet Ranch, was nominated in February 2011 for a Mochi Award for Best Social Game.

In April, 2011, Lisa Marino was appointed the new CEO of RockYou.

RockYou's investors include SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Partech International, and DCM.

Controversy

In December 2009, the company experienced a data breach resulting in the exposure of over 32 Million user accounts. In the controversy, it was revealed that the company failed to comply with the most basic security standards. The company stored all user account data in plain text in its database, unencrypted, exposing all that information to attackers. They also only required a five-character password, and did not permit the special characters that security experts recommend including in passwords. They then would e-mail the password to their users, despite the inherent insecurity of e-mail. The crackers used an SQL vulnerability that had been documented for over ten years. The security breach also revealed passwords to outside websites, such as Facebook and MySpace.

Rockyou was also criticized for its communication with users. It hadn't sent a notice to users days after the breach, and incorrectly reported that it only affected older applications when it actually affected all Rockyou users.

Zoo World

RockYou's most played game, Zoo World is a free social media application where users try to build the best zoo they can. Participants can build on various islands, decorate their zoo with kiosks, trees, and a large variety of animals. In addition, it has features such as breeding animals, collecting objects, and visiting friend's zoo islands. The act of leveling up is based on achievements of tasks. Also, users can earn wildlife points, a bonus reward that can be used to buy special items, like ultra rare animals, and rare decorative items. Wildlife points can be earned by breeding animals, completing levels and trophies, or bought via PayPal or credit card. Lastly, around each holiday there are events, new animals, and new items to add to the zoo.

In May 2011, RockYou announced that Zoo World 2, the sequel to the original Zoo World, would be available on Facebook on June 8th, 2011.

Current Social Games

Gourmet Ranch

Zoo World

Zoo World 2

Cloudforest Expedition

Past Social Applications and Games

Pieces of Flair

Horoscopes

RockYou Live

Speed Racing

Birthday Cards

Hug Me

Hero World

My Casino

Toy Land

RockYou Executive Team

Lisa Marino, CEO

Jonathan Knight, SVP of Games

Allyson Willoughby, SVP/General Counsel

Greg Kearney, SVP of Technology

Steve Van Horne, Chief Financial Officer

Jia Shen, CEO of RockYou Asia

Julie Shumaker, GM/SVP of RockYou Media

Kelli Dragovich, Head of HR

Josh Grant, SVP of Corporate Development & Strategy

Peter Everett, VP of Product for RockYou Media

References

External links

rockyou.com - official website

Category:Companies established in 2006 Category:Privately held companies of the United States Category:Cyberattacks