Jambool
Encyclopedia
Jambool was an ecommerce company. It operated Social Gold, a virtual good
s monetization platform. Social Gold enables developers to create and manage their own white-labeled virtual currency, to provide an in-app payments experience to their users, and analytics to monitor their virtual economy. Social Gold powered the virtual currency and payment solutions for thousands of online games and virtual worlds. Jambool was acquired by Google
on August 13, 2010, for approximately 70 million dollars. After the acquisition, Social Gold was scheduled to close on May 31, 2011.
veterans Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein, and has offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Singapore. Jambool started out as an online collaborative research tool. The company created several popular social applications and rose to among the top 10 application developers in 2008. In September 2008, Jambool launched Social Gold, an in-game payments platform for virtual currencies. In December 2008, Social Gold introduced its virtual currency platform in private beta. In February 2008, Social Gold launched a self-service payments widget for Facebook
application developers. Following that, in March 2009, Social Gold launched an in-game payments system. In October 2009, Social Gold added an support for in-Flash payments. This allowed players to securely make micro transactions within Adobe Flash
, obviating the need to go to a separate website to enter payment credentials. This increased ease-of-use increased customer monetization rates.
According to TechCrunch, Social Gold was "hit hard" by the introduction of Facebook Credits
, Facebook's official way of offering in-app payments for Facebook widgets. Facebook declared that all Facebook game developers would be required to only process payments through Facebook Credits beginning July 1, 2011, killing any possibility of Social Gold continuing as a platform for Facebook apps. Social Gold is scheduled to close on May 31, 2011, the last day before Facebook Credits become obligatory.
After Google's acquisition, Jambool employees worked on Google's in-app payments platform for web applications.
Virtual good
Virtual goods are non-physical objects purchased for use in online communities or online games. They have no intrinsic value and are intangible by definition....
s monetization platform. Social Gold enables developers to create and manage their own white-labeled virtual currency, to provide an in-app payments experience to their users, and analytics to monitor their virtual economy. Social Gold powered the virtual currency and payment solutions for thousands of online games and virtual worlds. Jambool was acquired by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
on August 13, 2010, for approximately 70 million dollars. After the acquisition, Social Gold was scheduled to close on May 31, 2011.
History
Jambool, Inc. was co-founded by Amazon.comAmazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
veterans Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein, and has offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Singapore. Jambool started out as an online collaborative research tool. The company created several popular social applications and rose to among the top 10 application developers in 2008. In September 2008, Jambool launched Social Gold, an in-game payments platform for virtual currencies. In December 2008, Social Gold introduced its virtual currency platform in private beta. In February 2008, Social Gold launched a self-service payments widget for Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
application developers. Following that, in March 2009, Social Gold launched an in-game payments system. In October 2009, Social Gold added an support for in-Flash payments. This allowed players to securely make micro transactions within Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, obviating the need to go to a separate website to enter payment credentials. This increased ease-of-use increased customer monetization rates.
According to TechCrunch, Social Gold was "hit hard" by the introduction of Facebook Credits
Facebook Credits
Facebook Credits is a virtual currency that enables people to purchase items in games and non-gaming applications on the Facebook Platform. One U.S. dollar is the equivalent of 10 Facebook Credits. Facebook Credits are currently available in 15 currencies including U.S. dollars, pound sterling,...
, Facebook's official way of offering in-app payments for Facebook widgets. Facebook declared that all Facebook game developers would be required to only process payments through Facebook Credits beginning July 1, 2011, killing any possibility of Social Gold continuing as a platform for Facebook apps. Social Gold is scheduled to close on May 31, 2011, the last day before Facebook Credits become obligatory.
After Google's acquisition, Jambool employees worked on Google's in-app payments platform for web applications.