Heyzap

Heyzap is a social discovery platform for mobile and online games and the largest social network for mobile gamers. Heyzap is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2009 by Jude Gomila and Immad Akhund.^[1][2][3] Heyzap provides users with a way to check-in to their favorite games, discover games and join a massive community of mobile gamers. Heyzap allows users to let other gamers know what they are playing, leave or browse tips for their favorite games, and earn badges. The website was launched in January 2009^[4]. Since then, Heyzap has received funding from a number of investors including Y Combinator, angel investors Naval Ravikant and Chris Dixon, the founder of del.icio.us, Joshua Schachter ^[5] and Union Square Ventures.^[6][7][8]

In March and April 2010, Heyzap added social games^[9] and released its Arcade Bar^[10]. Shortly after raising $3 million in funding, ^[11] Heyzap announced its new Heyzap Arcade ^[12] service for powering website games sections and updated API support for HTML5 games.

In October 2009, Heyzap created the Balloon Boy Game^[13] in response to the balloon boy hoax involving six-year old Falcon Heene. This was built off of an update to its API supporting viral tools such as Facebook sharing for casual games.

In June 2009, Heyzap launched a virtual goods platform for flash games. This allows developers to insert micro-transaction systems into their games and enables the games to be monetized.^[14][15]

In May 2009, following the outbreak of swine flu, Heyzap created the Swinefighter game.^[16] The game features a doctor who inoculates flying pigs with a giant syringe and amassed more than 3million plays in its first week.^[17] The game raises money for the Red Cross^[18] and includes tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to stay healthy.^[19][20]

References

External links

• Heyzap Company Website