As part of hi5's new brand identity, we have created a completely redesigned corporate web site. The new site, located at http://www.hi5networks.com/, emphasizes hi5's focus on friends, games, and fun -- while providing essential information to advertisers, partners, developers, and press. Initially launched in mid-October, the site also reflects the new look and feel of hi5, including our cool new corporate logo. If you haven't been to the site in a while, be sure to come check it out.NOTE: For all partners, press, and others that use the hi5 logo on your sites, please replace old versions of the logo with the new version. The new logo is available in various formats and sizes on our media kit page.
hi5 CEO, Bill Gossman, will be speaking at Piper Jaffray's Fifth Annual Global Internet Summit which starts tomorrow in Menlo Park, California. Gossman will join the "Social Networks" panel, which is scheduled for Tuesday, November 10 at 2:15 PM Pacific at the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel.
The panel will be moderated by Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray who specializes in Internet and Digital Media. Other panel participants include:
The panel will be moderated by Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray who specializes in Internet and Digital Media. Other panel participants include:
- Mark Goldston, Chairman, President & CEO of United Online, Inc.
- Dan Serfaty, CEO of Viadeo S.A.
- Representatives from Ning and Friendster
The Social Media World Forum, North America opened today at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. hi5's VP of Marketing, Mike Trigg, joined speakers from MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and other leading social media sites to talk about trends in the social media category. The panel discussion, titled "The Evolution of Social Networking", focused on how the space has evolved, and how social media can be leveraged as part of successful new marketing initiatives.
Moderated by Giovanni Rodriguez, managing partner and co-founder of the Conversation Group, the panel also included:
Moderated by Giovanni Rodriguez, managing partner and co-founder of the Conversation Group, the panel also included:
- Jeff Taylor, CEO of Eons
- Chris Heuer, Chairman and co-founder of Social Media Club
- Steve Patrizi, Head of Advertising, LinkedIn
- Erik Rabasca, Vice President, Converseon
ad:tech comes to New York next week with three action-packed days at the Javits Convention Center. hi5's top sales and marketing executives will be at the show, including Mike Trigg's participation in the "Branded Entertainment in the Digital Age" panel on Wednesday, November 4 from 11:00-11:50 AM, immediately after the opening keynote.
From ad:tech's site: "This dynamic panel will focus on the evolving roles product integration and product placement are playing in content as digital transforms all media. Our panel of experts will look at how new technologies and platforms are changing the way content is created, distributed, consumed and interacted with as well as analyze the impact that digital media and platforms are having on traditional media companies as they adjust their business and advertising models. This panel will also discuss how innovative, new media companies have arrived on the scene to offer compelling and unique online branded entertainment opportunities. Join us as we solicit your feedback and discuss how and where can marketers get the best bang for their branded-entertainment buck."
The panel will be moderated by David Lang, President of MindShare Entertainment. Panelists include:
From ad:tech's site: "This dynamic panel will focus on the evolving roles product integration and product placement are playing in content as digital transforms all media. Our panel of experts will look at how new technologies and platforms are changing the way content is created, distributed, consumed and interacted with as well as analyze the impact that digital media and platforms are having on traditional media companies as they adjust their business and advertising models. This panel will also discuss how innovative, new media companies have arrived on the scene to offer compelling and unique online branded entertainment opportunities. Join us as we solicit your feedback and discuss how and where can marketers get the best bang for their branded-entertainment buck."
The panel will be moderated by David Lang, President of MindShare Entertainment. Panelists include:
- Mike Trigg, VP of Marketing and Business Development, hi5
- Nathan Coyle, Agent, Digital Media and Entertainment, Creative Artists Agency
- Jordan Levin, CEO, Generate
- Greg Johnson, Senior VP, Digital, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
- Bladimiar Norman, Senior VP of Marketing, 42West
The Virtual Goods Summit 2009 starts today in San Francisco -- the city that has rapidly become the epicenter of the social entertainment market. The two-day event is focused on the emerging opportunity for virtual goods and economies. Once restricted to the
world of online gaming, virtual goods and currencies are beginning to
influence the development of social networks, community sites, and many
other new and exciting markets.
Executives from hi5 will be attending the event tomorrow. A few spaces are still available through online registration for tomorrow's session. A full program for the event is available here.
Executives from hi5 will be attending the event tomorrow. A few spaces are still available through online registration for tomorrow's session. A full program for the event is available here.
hi5's vice president of marketing, Mike Trigg, will join a discussion on the future of social media at the Digital Media Conference West event on Wednesday, October 28 from 4:15pm - 5:00pm.
The panel, titled "What's Next in Social Media?", will feature a panel of leading experts discussing the latest developments in social media and their forecasts for the sector in the coming years. Moderated by Michael Terpin, Founder of SocialRadius, panelists will include:
The panel, titled "What's Next in Social Media?", will feature a panel of leading experts discussing the latest developments in social media and their forecasts for the sector in the coming years. Moderated by Michael Terpin, Founder of SocialRadius, panelists will include:
- Elizabeth Churchill, Principal Research Scientist, Yahoo! Research
- Mary Hodder, Founder & CEO, Dabble
- Ian Swanson, Co-Founder and CEO, Sometrics
- Michael Trigg, Vice President Marketing, hi5
hi5 helped pioneer a new way to localize a web site, with our crowdsourced translation program. Later this month, hi5's translation community manager, Siko Bouterse, will share some of that expertise at the Localization World conference on October 20-22. Siko manages localization and international community programs at hi5.
The presentation entitled Social Web Localization Panel will take place on Wednesday, October 21 from 2:30-4:00 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The panel discussion will be moderated by Danica Brinton from Apple, who runs international production teams for several products, including iPhone/iPod Touch, and features representatives from several leading social sites, including:
The presentation entitled Social Web Localization Panel will take place on Wednesday, October 21 from 2:30-4:00 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The panel discussion will be moderated by Danica Brinton from Apple, who runs international production teams for several products, including iPhone/iPod Touch, and features representatives from several leading social sites, including:
- Regina Bustamante from Plaxo
- Ghassan Haddad from Facebook
- Joaquín Moreno from XING AG
- Nico Posner, LinkedIn
hi5 was one of several social entertainment companies featured in yesterday's USA Today. The article, titled "For social networks, it's game on", appeared as the cover story on the front page. If you missed the print edition, the full article is available online here.
Dave Maestri is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the social gaming genre. He developed one of the original titles, Mob Wars, which went on to be one of the most successful games on Facebook and has now brought that title to hi5 Games. Like other premium hi5 titles, Mob Wars is integrated to hi5 Coins, hi5's global virtual currency, for micro-payments - enabling players to acquire in-game powers and achieve new levels faster.
Start out as a petty thief and work your way up the ranks to become boss of your criminal empire. Check out Mob Wars on hi5 Games now.
New 3D engine serves as the basis for new revenue streams and a more game-like user experience
SAN FRANCISCO -- Oct. 14, 2009 -- Global social entertainment site, hi5, today unveiled an entirely re-designed user interface, focused on games, virtual goods, direct user payments and high-fidelity interactivity. Featuring a streamlined, high-energy look, the new hi5 is the first major social site to introduce animated, 3-dimensional avatars, called hi5 Stars™, on every user's profile page - providing a compelling medium for interactivity and self-expression.The new hi5.com is available in public beta at http://new.hi5.com and begins going live globally to hi5's millions of users worldwide this week. Highlights of the new hi5 user experience include:
- Re-designed, high-fidelity user profile page, featuring hi5 Stars 3D avatars
- hi5 Stars designer tool for customizing avatars as a fun, supplemental representation of users on the site
- Simplified top-level navigation, highlighting the hi5 Games channel and hi5 Coins virtual currency, with mouse-over secondary navigation to other popular pages
- New corporate identity, emphasizing hi5's social entertainment value proposition around gaming, friends, and fun.
"hi5 Stars provide a new level of self-expression and interactivity to the hi5 user experience," said Andrew Sheppard, executive producer, hi5. "We designed our avatars to be an integral part of the hi5 user's online experience and a natural extension of their real-world persona - complete with moods, motions, and status updates. Stars serve as the basis for extending game-like mechanics into the online social experience."With the launch of Stars, hi5 is pioneering a new level of fidelity for social sites. The customizable, fully-animated characters are powered by a breakthrough 3D rendering engine, developed by hi5. This framework is built on top of the Adobe® Flash® Player from Adobe Systems, which enables engaging, interactive animations directly in a web browser with no additional download or plug-in required. hi5's 3D engine will form the basis for future development of even more immersive animated features on the site.
"hi5 Stars are a compelling example of an interactive, 3D user experience that is delivered entirely within a standard Web browser running Adobe Flash Player 10, with no additional download," said Tom Barclay, senior product marketing manager for Flash Player at Adobe. "The 3D engine hi5 has built to run on Flash Player is a great example of the type of next-generation, immersive online experiences that the Adobe Flash Platform enables across the Web."
In addition to forming a foundation for a more interactive and immersive user experience, hi5 Stars represent a new monetization opportunity for hi5. In Q4, hi5 will extend the current virtual goods store on the site to include premium merchandise for hi5 Stars. Payments will be made using hi5 Coins, the site-wide virtual currency. Avatar merchandise also presents a new promotional opportunity for hi5's advertising partners.
"Our new user experience featuring hi5 Stars further delivers on our distinct social entertainment value proposition," said Bill Gossman, CEO, hi5. "In addition to games and virtual gifts, avatars are a third key pillar in our strategy of driving revenue from direct user payments. Micro-transactions using our virtual currency, hi5 Coins, already account for over 15 percent of our overall revenue, and we expect premium items for hi5 Stars to further spur that growth."The new hi5.com site has been in private beta since August. Adoption and enthusiasm around the look of the new site, and hi5 Stars in particularly, has been significant during the beta program. Average page views per session in the new version is nearly double previous levels, and average minutes per session has also increased. The new site began deploying worldwide this week.
About Adobe Flash Platform
The Adobe Flash Platform is the leading Web design and development platform for creating expressive applications, content, and video that run consistently across operating systems and devices and reach over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops. Flash Player 10 was installed on more than 93 percent of computers in just the first ten months since its release. For more information about the Adobe Flash Platform visit http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform/.
About hi5
Founded in 2003, hi5 today is among the top 20 largest web sites in the world and the leading destination site focused on social gaming and entertainment. Combining a robust social platform with premium content and game mechanics, hi5 delivers a fun, expressive, and interactive entertainment experience to millions of users around the world. Available in over 50 languages, the site features localized games, virtual goods and other content that is monetized through hi5 Coins, a global virtual currency supporting over 60 payment methods and 30 currencies worldwide. For more information on hi5, visit http://www.hi5.com.
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