Kara Visits the Offices of RockYou
by Kara Swisher
Posted on October 22, 2007 at 8:59 AM PT
So I recently ventured into the heart of the empire of toddler developers with a visit to the San Mateo, Calif., HQ of RockYou, the super-popular maker of third-party apps on hot social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
I have been on a bit of a grumpy tear of late about the juvenile nature of these widgets, whose use has taken off explosively, as the sites they live on have grown.
I have felt that most of them have been a bit silly, useless and faddish, rather than long-lasting and relevant.
RockYou’s apps, for example, include: Super Wall, with 1.26 million active daily users on Facebook, which allows you to turbocharge your basic posting wall; X Me, a communications app with 706,000 Facebook users, which allows you to “Hug Her, Slap Him, Tickle Them!”; and Likeness, where you can “compare yourself with friends and movie stars like Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba, Keira Knightley and many more,” which has 611,000 active Facebook users.
Like another widget maker, Slide (I did a post and video on Slide here, as well as a three-part interview with founder Max Levchin too), the start-up has big VC backing. In RockYou’s case, it is funded by Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Partech International.
Of course, there are the rumors of big-money buyouts and even IPOs for these developers.
I am not so sure this is a good thing, but I do also believe there is something important going on with companies like RockYou, which could become akin to the major software makers of the past era. If, of course, they grow up a bit first.
Here’s my video of a visit to their office (and here is an accompanying interview with its co-founders Lance Tokuda and Jia Shen), where one employee jokingly played dress-up just like an adult, sporting a suit and tie just for me.
Oh, those crazy kids!
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Comments
Dear Ms. Kara Swisher,
It is my honor to appreciate your effort in flying into downtown San Mateo, CA to interview me. I am glad that we were able to meet face first. However, it is with regret that I inform you that I am displeased with your gorilla style interviewing tactics. Keeping my oral volume below yours is a trick straight out of the book of the No Spin Zone of old media books of tricks up your sleeves. We could have someday been wealthy business partners smoking cigars on a private jet to the Hamptons and talking taxes and stuff, but I am afraid you blew the deal. As someone once said with millions of dollars at stake, ‘No deal!’. I have been pushed to the limit of friendly enemies.
I should have you know that my PR people are out there doing damage control as we speak! Initial results are in, and they are mopping the floor with your PR people. I mean business in this dog eat dog world. I have a total of over 300 friends across my MySpace profiles and I have donated to every single presidential candidate including Ru Paul. And one last thing to remember:
* I could buy the Wall Street Journal with my little pinky finger if I had the money.
* Just remember that last thing.
Sincerely,
AJ M
Posted by AJ M at October 22nd, 2007 at 3:38 pmChief Executive Business Associate
M Enterprises
Dear A.J.:
Five words: Rupert Murdoch is my boss.
(He eats little moguls like you for breakfast.)
Just remember that last thing.
Sincerely,
Rupe Minion #43,267
Posted by Kara Swisher at October 22nd, 2007 at 5:06 pm