Recently in Hi5 Site Category

With Valentines rapidly approaching this Sunday, hi5 has introduced several fun new ways that users can show their love online.  These new features, launched this week, are perfect for showing that special someone how you feel.

 

First, as a special holiday addition to our gift store, hi5 is offering a variety of Valentines-themed Super Gifts™.  Available in 10 different designs, Super Gifts go beyond the animation of hi5's standard virtual gifts to include a special skinning of the recipient's home page in Valentines colors.  Valentines Super Gifts are priced between 320 and 400 hi5 Coins and are accessible through a "Happy Valentine's Day" banner on the home page.

 

Second, hi5 this week is introducing BlastCards™, a customizable e-card that users can send to their Valentines sweethearts.  Users can upload their favorite photo into a variety of custom frames and send them to their hi5 friends.  The BlastCards appear in the recipient's Comments section on their Profile page.  As part of the launch, many of the frames feature Valentines themes, but BlastCards are also available for other holidays, birthdays, and flirting as well.  BlastCards are priced at either 37 or 75 hi5 Coins, depending on the design, with an introductory free card.

 

Check out these new premium features today!

Super Gifts

BlastCards

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.

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.

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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Inside Social Games

Barn Buddy, one of the most popular farm-based social games, is now available through hi5 Games.  Developed by TheBroth, Inc., the game launched on hi5 this week with integration to hi5 Coins, our universal currency for in-game transactions.

Players cultivate their crops through an interactive, drag-and-drop interface.  As they progress through the game, they expand their fields and increase their earnings.  And they can even sow a little mischief, by releasing bugs, planting weeds or stealing crops from their neighbors' farms.  Players can earn credits in the game through the sale of their crops, or purchase Barn Buddy credits using hi5 Coins.

Check out Barn Buddy today.

myFarm, a compelling new farm-based game developed by take(5)social, launched on hi5 this week.  The game puts players in charge of their own interactive farm, where they plant seeds, raise crops, harvest their bounty, and earn myFarm Cash selling their produce at market.  Users can visit their friends' farms and give them gifts to help them prosper.  myFarm is the latest game to integrate to hi5's virtual currency, hi5 Coins, for in-game purchases.  Players can use hi5 Coins to purchase everything from chickens to chicken coops to increase their earning potential and accelerate their advancement through the game.

Unlock your inner farmer today on hi5 Games.

Another popular social game from Playdom, Sorority Life, has gone live on hi5 integrated with hi5 Coins for virtual goods purchases. Sorority Life gives players the chance to live like a sorority sister, from great fashion and friends to non-stop shopping and socializing.  The game went live on hi5 Games last week, with integration to hi5 Coins - hi5's global virtual currency, for in-game micro-payments.  Sorority Life is the third title from social gaming leader Playdom available on hi5, which already features Mobsters and Poker Palace.  The partnership between hi5 and Playdom was initially announced in May. Play Sorority Life today at http://games.hi5.com

We introduced a new feature last week to help users navigate the increasing number of games on hi5.  A new hi5 Games toolbar, which appears at the bottom of your browser page when logged into the site, provides quick links to your favorite games.  In addition to one-click access, the toolbar also notifies you (with a little green light) when your friends are playing a game. It even shows you who is playing what with a simple mouse-over, so you can jump in on the fun.  Check it out today.

Aukland, New Zealand; June 2, 2009 -- SmallWorlds, a new generation of 3D virtual world that integrates seamlessly with the rest of the web, today announced the unveiling of their engaging virtual world within the hi5 social entertainment community. With this launch, 60 million monthly unique hi5 visitors can directly access the virtual world through the hi5 Games channel to participate in the SmallWorlds experience. While inside SmallWorlds, hi5 members can create their own avatar, explore the community, customize their pet, decorate their own room with furniture, music and videos - even create their own experiences to share with others through SmallWorlds' unique Interactibles framework.

"Through this partnership, we are able to provide the hi5 community with valuable, entertaining content and a seamless experience when purchasing premium items in SmallWorlds using their hi5 Coins," said Ted Tagami, Vice President of Business Development for SmallWorlds. "We anticipate this partnership to be greatly beneficial for both parties."

With the integration of SmallWorlds into hi5, members now have immediate access to the virtual world through the hi5 Games channel and can enjoy creating and playing in competitions, games, quests and missions. In addition, hi5 members will be able to spend their hi5 Coins in SmallWorlds to purchase premium items such as rare monthly collectibles, upgrades for their room and enhancements for their avatar.

"We are dedicated to fostering social engagement for our global audience. By integrating a highly interactive virtual environment like SmallWorlds into hi5, we are providing our audience with another medium for fun and engaging social experiences," said Anil Dharni, Vice President of Products at hi5. "With the seamless integration of our virtual currency into SmallWorlds, our community will also enjoy being able to purchase items within the virtual world using their hi5 Coins."

hi5 recently announced their social entertainment strategy of seamlessly integrating interactive content from key OpenSocial partners into their infrastructure, which is continued through this partnership with SmallWorlds. The SmallWorlds virtual world will be deeply integrated into the hi5 API, providing greater access for SmallWorlds to the hi5 audience and to revenue-sharing opportunities. SmallWorlds and hi5 will share revenue generated through the SmallWorlds virtual world.

For more information, please visit: games.hi5.com.

About SmallWorlds

SmallWorlds is a new generation of virtual world combining digital media, web content and casual games into a highly accessible and entertaining 3D world that integrates seamlessly with the rest of the web. Inside SmallWorlds, audiences create their own personal space with an avatar, pet and room, and then share experiences with their friends in the community like playing games, watching videos, listening to their favorite bands, browsing through photo galleries, and so much more. SmallWorlds is also connected through open social platforms including Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. Bringing together the best aspects of online games, instant messaging, social networks and digital media, SmallWorlds integrates these interactive and engaging elements into a browser-based virtual world that is just a click away. For more information, visit www.smallworlds.com.

About hi5 Networks

Headquartered in San Francisco, hi5 is one of the world's largest and fastest growing social entertainment sites. Our focus is on delivering a fun, interactive, and immersive social experience online to our users around the world. With over 60 million unique visitors every month, hi5 is a top 20 website globally and the number one social site in dozens of countries across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The service is available in over 50 languages, delivering localized content, games and other applications to users worldwide. For more information on hi5, visit www.hi5.com.

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NOTE: This article is a re-post of a guest article by Anil Dharni, VP of Products at hi5 and member of the OpenSocial Foundation Board of Directors, that first appeared on the OpenSocial blog.

Ever since launching our OpenSocial platform in March 2008, developers have been eager for a unified payment platform for collecting micro-transactions on hi5. Over the past year, we have moved ahead to make such a virtual currency platform available to developers while ensuring a positive user experience for our members. Over the last few weeks, hi5 has been launching our first third-party games integrated via OpenSocial-compliant APIs to our virtual currency platform - providing a standard payment method for developers to monetize their applications through our audience of over 60 million active users around the world.

The first step in this progression was the launch of our virtual currency back in December 2008, which allowed users to buy hi5 Coins and use them to purchase virtual goods on the site. This platform was initially accessible only for hi5 premium features like Gifts. We rapidly expanded the ways that users could get real currency into the system - going beyond credit/debit cards to include payment methods, such as mobile SMS, offers and alternate cards, like Ultimate Game cards, that are popular in different parts of the world.

The next step was to make our payments interface OpenSocial compliant. In order to make our virtual currency more universal across hi5 and non-hi5 applications, our OpenSocial platform team collaborated with other containers to propose an OpenSocial Virtual Currency API as an extension to the OpenSocial specification. Our virtual currency interface was expedited due to the work started by other OpenSocial containers like Xiaonei.com, 51.com, and Netlog.com. With real use cases from Asia, Europe and Latin America, the containers quickly converged on the API specifications.

The hi5 OpenSocial Virtual Currency interface is already live in public beta with several third-party developers like RockYou (RockYou Pets), Playdom (Poker Palace) and Small Worlds, enabling them to collect direct user payments within their games. We have a number of additional partnerships that will launch soon. OpenSocial developers can now leverage a standard virtual currency spec across containers - allowing them to monetize through micro-transactions without worrying about the details of payment processing, currency conversions, localized payment methods or other logistical challenges. Our users benefit, as well, with more outlets for spending their hi5 Coins and a simplified and familiar process for making payments on the hi5 site. We look forward to continuing to work with the OpenSocial community to innovate on the virtual currency standard and to make micro-transactions between users and developers a viable and growing revenue stream.