Smeet is a free browser based 3D

3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

 social game, developed by Smeet Communications GmbH based in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The company was founded in 2007 and is managed by Sebastian Funke (CEO), Daniel Bülhoff (COO

Chief operating officer

A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...

) and Reinhard Köhn (CTO). Smeet creates virtual worlds in which people can meet and interact with their avatars

Avatar (computing)

In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...

. Smeet combines casual

Casual game

A casual game is a video game targeted at or used by a mass audience of casual gamers. Casual games can have any type of gameplay, and fit in any genre. They are typically distinguished by their simple rules and lack of commitment required in contrast to more complex hardcore games...

 and social gaming

Social gaming

Social gaming commonly refers to playing games as a way of social interaction, as opposed to playing games in solitude, like some card games and the single-player mode of many video games...

.

History

The startup company

Startup company

A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...

 Smeet Communications GmbH was founded in 2007. The meaning of the name Smeet could be interpreted as "Social Meeting". The company’s headquarters

Headquarters

Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...

 are located in Berlin and are currently employing around 75 people. Smeet Communications is financially provided by international venture capitalist Hasso Plattner Ventures

Hasso Plattner

Hasso Plattner is a cofounder of software giant SAP AG. Today he is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP AG.- Biography :Hasso Plattner is a German entrepreneur...

 Smeet Communications has also received funding

Funding

Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money , or other values such as effort or time , for a project, a person, a business or any other private or public institutions...

 from the investment company

Investment company

An investment company is a company whose main business is holding securities of other companies purely for investment purposes. The investment company invests money on behalf of its shareholders who in turn share in the profits and losses....

 Partech International

Partech International

Founded in 1982, Partech International is an investment company specializing in international venture capital with offices in the US and in Europe....

. In January 2011, the Smeet platform

Platform

- Physical objects and features :* Diving platform, used in competitive diving* Jumping platform, naturally occurring platforms, or platforms made in an ad-hoc way for cliff jumping* Oil platform, a structure built for oil production...

 had reached around 6 million users and is translated into over 10 different languages.

Website

Unlike many other 3D social games, Smeet operates without any download and is accessible directly in any browser window with 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...

. Smeet is supported on both Mac

Mac OS

Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...

 and PC

IBM PC compatible

IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...

. The users can sign up on the destination page or get online directly via the 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 without any further registration

Registered user

A registered user is one who uses a program or a website and provides his/her credentials, effectively proving his/her identity.-Technical differences:...

 needed. The Smeet website is also possible to integrate to any other website through iframe.

Membership

After signing up on Smeet for free, users can create and customize their own profiles

User profile

A user profile is a collection of personal data associated to a specific user. A profile refers therefore to the explicit digital representation of a person's identity...

 and individualize their avatars which represents themselves in the 3D-world. The basic functions, such as chatting

Online chat

Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...

, decorating user rooms, playing games and solving quest

Quest

In mythology and literature, a quest, a journey towards a goal, serves as a plot device and as a symbol. Quests appear in the folklore of every nation and also figure prominently in non-national cultures. In literature, the objects of quests require great exertion on the part of the hero, and...

s are also free of charge. Users in Smeet can earn “Fame Points” via a variety of activities and progress to higher levels

Level (video gaming)

A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...

. With increasing number of Fame Points and levels, users gain a higher social status

Social status

In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc....

 and receive additional content. If the user however wants to get access to special premium

Premium

Premium may refer to:* Premium , a promotional item that can be received for a small fee when redeeming proofs of purchase that come with or on retail products....

 functions and activities, purchase of the in-world currency

Currency

In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...

 “Coins” is necessary - which will transform the user to a VIP

VIP

VIP and V.I.P. is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:-In general:* Vacuum insulated panel* Values, Influence, and Peers, an anti-crime campaign in Ontario elementary schools* Variable Information Printing, a form of on-demand printing...

-member for a limited time period.

Community

Users signing up on Smeet.com are forwarded to their nationalized sub domain based on their IP-address

IP address

An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...

. After signing up, the users are then forwarded into a world with other users in the same age group, thus not mixing up minors

Minor (law)

In law, a minor is a person under a certain age — the age of majority — which legally demarcates childhood from adulthood; the age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is typically 18...

 and adults in the same world. In the Smeet community

Virtual community

A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals...

, users can chat and meet new people, combining the features of dating sites and video games

Online game

An online game is a game played over some form of computer network. This almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems...

.

Gameplay

Smeet offers diverse multiplayer games for users to play against each other. In the designated games world, the users can choose from a range of themed quiz

Quiz

A quiz is a form of game or mind sport in which the players attempt to answer questions correctly. In some countries, a quiz is also a brief assessment used in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities, and/or skills.Quizzes are usually scored in points and many...

zes. There are also several mini games included in Smeet, such as Mahjong

Mahjong

Mahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players...

, Astro Shooter and Polar Pogo. In addition to this, users can complete tasks and games, generating Fame Points through the Smeet leveling system. There is also an object developing feature present in Smeet, similar to the one in FarmVille

FarmVille

FarmVille is a farming simulation social network game developed by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm, Farm Town,, and older games such as the Harvest Moon series...

. The users can adopt pets, plants or fantasy creatures and by feeding and watering them, the object grows over time.

Partnership and projects

Since the launch of Smeet, there has been numerous partner

Partnership

A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.Since humans are social beings, partnerships between individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments, and varied combinations thereof, have always been and remain commonplace...

 projects with leading brands including RTL

RTL Television

Rtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...

 (Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann AG is a multinational media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,983 workers , which makes it the most international media corporation in the world. In 2008 the company reported a €16.118 billion consolidated...

), Endemol

Endemol

Endemol is an international television production and distribution company based in the Netherlands, with subsidiaries and joint ventures in 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Poland,...

, Universal Music, Bravo

Bravo (magazine)

Bravo is the largest teen magazine within the German-language sphere. The first issue was published in 1956, subtitled as "the magazine for film and television" . Marilyn Monroe's portrait graced the first published issue, the never-published dummy issue cover displayed Elvis Presley.-History:The...

, Quiksilver

Quiksilver

Quiksilver, Inc. , is an American company based in Huntington Beach, California, one of the world's largest manufacturers of surfwear and other boardsport-related equipment...

 and Sony Pictures which have been integrated on the platform. The integration of videos with user generated content

User-generated content

User generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...

 enables a social viewing feature into Smeet. The videos are mainly streamed from video-sharing websites such as YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

, but there has also been partnership together with national TV-channels where shows, such as the final of the Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...

, German Idol series

Deutschland sucht den Superstar

Deutschland sucht den Superstar is a German reality talent show, also commonly known by its initials DSDS. Part of the Idol franchise, it was created by English media mogul Simon Fuller as a spin-off from the British show Pop Idol, of which two series were broadcast between the years of 2001 and...

, Big Brother

Big Brother (TV series)

Big Brother is a television show in which a group of people live together in a large house, isolated from the outside world but continuously watched by television cameras. Each series lasts for around three months, and there are usually fewer than 15 participants. The housemates try to win a cash...

 and the U.S election 2008

United States elections, 2008

The 2008 United States general elections were held on November 4. The result was a significant victory for the Democratic Party on the national level, as they increased majorities in both houses of Congress and won the Presidency. Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican John McCain in the...

 have been streamed

Streaming media

Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...

live while being broadcasted on TV at the same time.