Investors pour $161 million into 16 virtual worlds in second quarter
Google blessed the virtual world market with its own entry yesterday. But it is hardly alone. Investors poured $161 million in 16 virtual world companies in the second quarter, according to Virtual Worlds Management.
The investments help put the launch of Lively by Google into perspective. Lively is more like a virtual room business rather than a true virtual world. There is a ton of competition in a market that has had only a handful of… Continue Reading
Social network hi5 buys app creator PixVerse to build out its own chat service
Social network hi5 has bought a social network application developer company called PixVerse for an undisclosed amount. While PixVerse’s applications, like Pix Chat and Pix Wall, run on multiple platforms on rival social networks, the reason for the purchase is that hi5 wants its technology.
PixVerse applications are based on what it considers a “breakthrough” implementation of Adobe’s Flash technology that it has built its various applications on. It also uses Google App Engine, which lets… Continue Reading