Pooj Preena to speak at NY Media Summit
Mar 8th
Pooj Preena, CEO of Hi-media USA, will speak at the New York Media Summit this week, being held at the McGraw-Hill Building in New York City.
The NY Media Summit brings together global leaders from the worlds of Media, Advertising, Television, Social Media, Mobile, Cable & Satellite, Publishing, News Media, Motion Pictures, Marketing and more.
Preena is speaking on a panel titled “Digital Money: Virtual Currencies: Experimenting and Developing a Micropayment Economy”, being held on Wednesday, March 10th from 3:45 – 5:00 p.m.
In this session, panelists representing payment and offer platforms, content owners and analysts will look at how the micropayments industry has evolved over the past several years, and how publishers, banks, PayPal and others are creating new micropayment-based product offerings.
Hi-media is the only company that offers both advertising AND payments under one roof, giving us tremendous insight into how publishers, merchants and online game developers can generate additional revenue and monetize their content.
The panel will include:
- Karl Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, PLAYSPAN, Inc.
- Scott Kessler, Senior Director, Information Technology, Internet Software & Services and Internet Retail, Standard & Poor’s Equity Research
- Kris Soumas, Head of Games, A&E Television Networks
- Pooj Preena, CEO, Groupe Hi-Media USA
- Renata Dionello, Chief of Staff to CEO, ebay (PayPal)
- Mihir Shah, Chief Revenue Officer, Offerpal Media
- Robert Abbott, General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners, Moderator
We hope to see you at the McGraw Hill Building, 1221 Avenue of the Americas (49th St. & 6th Ave). More info on The Media Summit website can be found here: http://www.digitalhollywood.com/MediaSummit.html
Learn more about Hi-media Payments and Allopass at GDC next week!
Mar 5th
Allopass US team will attend the Game Developer Conference next week in San Francisco (Moscone Center – March 9-13).
GDC is the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event, attracting over 17,000 attendees. Presented every spring in San Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile, and online games.
If you are a game publisher or developer looking for a global payments provider that covers 60 countries, offers multiple payments methods (typically a selection of the 4-6 most relevant methods for each country), faster remittance, as well as global advertising and traffic acquisition opportunities, Allopass // Hi-media might have exactly what you need, all under one roof.
To learn more about Allopass or schedule a meeting at GDC, feel free to drop an email to Chris Simamora, our US Business Development Manager at csimamora(at)allopass(dot)us
We look forward to meeting you there!
Allopass announces New Mobile Payment Solution in France
Feb 18th
Hi-media Payments is pleased to announce that a new French mobile payment solution called MPME is now live on the Allopass platform. We are the first to offer this new mobile option in addition to premium SMS.
MPME – Micro Payment Mobile Enablers – is a one-shot WAP payment available on all 3 carriers in France: Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom. Advantages to this new solution include:
- the ability to charge higher price points: up to 8EUR for a one-shot payment
- more price points available than with pSMS
- weekly and monthly subscriptions
- better payouts
For the French speakers, you can see a quick video demonstration here : http://vimeo.com/9202765 and get detailed information on our Allopass website.
Stay connected, more payment options will be announced soon!
Hi-media’s Allopass Payment Service Further Expands in the US
Feb 4th
We’re excited to announce that we’ve established a San Francisco office to bring our Allopass micropayments platform to the North American market. The micropayments space is certainly crowded, but we’ve got more opportunities for merchants than ever before!
- We offer a platform that can not only bill to a mobile phone but credit cards, ISPs, home phones, prepaid cards and more.
- We’ve also got nearly ten years behind us in the space, currently processing more than 8 million transactions a month globally.
- We’re the only payments provider that offers merchant payments within 7-10 days of a transaction.
- We are the only company that can provide online advertising reach and mobile payments under one roof – through synergistic opportunities with other Hi-media businesses.
Some of our initial US customers that we announced today include: Artix Entertainment, Boomerang Networks, Gambit, gWallet, Merscom Games, OLX, Peanut Labs, Quepasa, Sometrics, Sonico, TheBroth, Viwawa, Viximo, and Wadja. Check out our blog for many more partners to be announced soon!
You can read the full release here and be sure to check the News coverage of our US launch as well!
Engage Expo: Online Games – Virtual Worlds Track & Virtual Goods Conference
Feb 4th
Allopass’s US team will be at Engage Expo in two weeks on Feb 16-17, in NYC! We would love to meet with you so feel free to contact Chris Simamora at csimamora@allopass.us to schedule a meeting.
The Online Games & Virtual Worlds track will be dedicated to user acquisition, engagement and retention, as well as monetization strategies for all types of online games and virtual worlds. Check out the “Monetization Strategies: What’s Working Today” session to learn more about successful engagement and monetization models. Subscriptions, virtual goods, premium services, advertising, and microtransactions will be discussed.
For those who want to focus on virtual goods and virtual economies, the Virtual Goods Conference will host discussions around how to best implement and manage a virtual economy, in both online and mobile platforms.
We look forward to hearing from you and sharing experiences, best practices and what to avoid regarding monetizing games, social networks and virtual worlds. To continue the discussion, please check out the upcoming case studies section of this blog to see how some of our customers have already successfully monetized their online property.
More details about Engage Expo on the Engage Website
Hi-media revenues up 27% in 2009
Feb 4th
Our parent company Hi-media recently published their revenue for the past year. The Group reported 172.1M euros in sales for 2009, which is a 27% increase from 2008.
Hi-media payments, the Group’s micropayment business grew strongly in 2009, up 30% compared with the previous year. For the fourth quarter, organic growth remained strong at 18% year on year.
“ Hi-media unique position in Europe and our advertising and payments technological know-how make us confident about 2010 in our effort to continue our development worldwide” Cyril Zimmermann, Hi-media CEO, said.
You can read and download the complete press release on the Hi-media PR website section
Allopass is a Silver Sponsor at Casual Connect Europe – Feb 10-12
Jan 25th
Allopass’s European team will be sponsoring and attending the upcoming Casual Connect Europe event in Hamburg, on February 10-12, 2010. Feel free to contact Gilles Tannugi, at gilles@allopass.com to schedule a meeting prior to the event.
Casual Connect is the educational component of the Casual Games Association, the international trade association for casual games professionals. Casual Connect encompasses online news, a regular magazine and yearly conference series in Europe and the US (Seattle).
Casual Connect is one of the leading conferences for the casual games industry with over 3,500 professionals attending Casual Connect Events each year.
The sessions will include panels and discussions around designing, developing, promoting and monetizing games through advertising and micropayments. A special section will be dedicated to mobile platforms.
We look forward to meeting with you there and sharing experiences around designing engaging micropayment experiences, implementing successful virtual economies and promoting your casual games on a global basis!
$1.38 Billion Invested in Virtual Goods-Related Companies Worldwide in 2009
Jan 21st
The 2009 Virtual Goods Investment Report has just been released by Engage Digital Media. The report, compiled by www.VirtualGoodsNews.com details the investments made in virtual goods related companies in 2009.
Interesting facts and figures include:
- Above $1.38 billion has been invested in 87 companies last year, which is more than three times the amount invested in 2008 ($408 million) for twice as many companies (34 in 2008).
- Acquisitions represent $398.3 million out of the $1.38 billion invested.
- The largest acquisitions were Electronic Arts’ acquisition of Playfish for $300 million and China-based KongZhong’s $80 million acquisition of China-based Dacheng.
- Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies was by far the largest investor in the space in 2009 with its investments in Zynga and Facebook.
The complete report can be found on the Engage Digital Media Website, and a comprehensive list of the individual companies, invested amounts, investors, and market segment is also available.
Join us at Mobile Monday on Jan 11!
Jan 7th
Hi-media USA is sponsoring the next Mobile Monday, on January 11 at the super cool W Hotel in San Francisco!
Register for free and join us to discuss Virtual Goods & Micropayments on Mobile and Beyond. Panelists, including executives from mobile payment platforms, game publishers and application developers, will discuss how they have successfully generated revenue with virtual goods, challenges presented by this new model for monetization, and their views on how the market will evolve in 2010.
Panel
Lex Bayer – General Manager Payments Business, Playspan
Doug Bewsher – CMO, Mig33
Mark Curtis – CEO, Flirtomatic
Steven Lurie – General Manager Mobile, Zynga
Pooj Preena – CEO, Hi-media USA
Justin Smith – Founder, Inside Network (moderator)
Roger Wood – CEO, Orca
Logistics
Location: W Hotel San Francisco
Date: January 11th at 7 pm, doors open at 6:30 pm
Cost: Free – but registration is required to attend
Cocktails: provided (and you get free drinks!)
More details here : http://www.mobilemonday.us/?p=300
We are looking forward to seeing you there!
Pooj Preena speaking at CES 2010
Jan 5th
If you are attending CES 2010 in Las Vegas, you can see Hi-media USA CEO Pooj Preena speaking on the Mobile Commerce and Content panel! Details below:
Date: Thursday January 7th
Time: 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, 2nd Floor.
Please stop by and say hello!
