We've recently introduced three new viral features that we feel will make it easier for games to grow on myspace. Here's a rundown of the new goodies for developers...
- Enabled Share on myspace for onsite apps. This is an improved way for apps to share more types of content into the myspace stream.
Stats: Using Share on myspace now accounts for 10-20% of new installs per day for some games. It has quickly become the second largest source of installs behind invites during our initial testing. There has been a 14x increase in CTR on stream posts using Share over our traditional Activities API.
- Launched a new In-Game Friending API, allowing users to friend each other within a game.
Stats: Some developers have found a 65 - 70% acceptance rate on friend requests sent from within the game. They also found an added benefit of a 16% increase in gift sending.
- Launched a new App Requests API, enabling users to send gifts and/or invites to friends. This is a new user to user gifting and invite channel for apps.
The feedback we've heard from developers was to enhance our viral
channels. We believe these new features are a big step forward, and we'll
continue to improve and find new ways to grow apps virally on our site. We've gotten some great initial stats from
test partners, which we've included below.
We hope you enjoy the new features, here's more details about each
one!
SHARE ON
MYSPACE
The stream is becoming an increasingly popular and an effective
way for apps to acquire new users. We recently launched Sync with
Facebook, allowing users to sync their myspace updates, including some app
activities, with Facebook. App
activities allow users to share the level they've achieved in a game, boast
beating a friend at poker, or show off the new pet they've adopted.
Currently most onsite app developers use our Activities
API to post app activities into the myspace Stream. Now, we'd like to recommend another way for
onsite apps to utilize the myspace stream - by using Share on myspace. With
Share on myspace, an app has
increased flexibility and added benefits.
Apps are able to share more types of content into the stream, like links
and photos. Developers are also able to
include an externally hosted image with the stream activity. This means
developers can quickly customize and test photos associated with stream
content. Currently, our Activities API only allows developers to include a
photo that's been uploaded to myspace. Using Share on myspace is a smart
and easy alternative for app developers to maximize using the stream.
Initial Stats: Using Share on myspace now
accounts for 10-20% of new installs per
day for some games. It has quickly
become the second largest source of
installs behind invites during our initial testing. Companies have seen an increase of 14x the CTR on app activities in the
stream using Share on myspace over our current Activities API.
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IN-GAME
FRIENDING API
Our new In-Game Friending API gives developers the new
ability for users to friend each other within a game. This feature allows
users to make new friends in order to add neighbors, clan members, or players
to a game.
Initial Stats: After a few days of testing, some developers have found a 65 - 70% acceptance rate on friend
requests sent from within the game. Most
people accepted friends within several hours, showing that users were looking for
more people to play games with right away. An added benefit of implementing this feature was a 16% increase in gift sending. New
friends made within the game sent each other more gifts, leading to increased
user satisfaction.
APP REQUESTS API
We're also excited to bring developers a new ability for
apps to send gifts and/or invites to users. This new viral channel allows
users to accept and send gifts and other type of requests to friends. Users are also able
to accept and send an invite to play a new game with a gift or request attached
to the invite.
We've found that on myspace user-to-user communication
channels are more effective than app-to-user communication. So, we expect
this new channel to drive more re-engagement within games since it's a more personal
(1:1) form of communication. We also expect it to also drive more
conversions of users to your games since gifts can accompany an invite to add
the game, which is more compelling than a simple invite. The goal with
this new channel is to make apps/games more personalized and engaging, and
provide developers the mechanism to get users to perform viral actions. The key
is that this communication comes from a friend, creating social influence and a
more personalized recommendation to add the app.
Now that we've added this new communication channel, we
thought it would be wise to give everyone a breakdown of what app communication
channels are available, what they're for, and what the differences are between
them all. Hope this is helpful and let us know what metrics you're seeing with
this new communications channel.