Playdom Integrates Poker Palace into hi5 Networks' Virtual Currency

San Francisco, CA, May 19, 2009 -- Playdom, a leading social games developer, and hi5, a leading social entertainment web site, today announced the immediate availability of Playdom's popular Poker Palace game on hi5.com. The move continues hi5's rapid rollout of third-party applications that are integrated into the hi5 Coins virtual currency and distributed to the site's 63 million users worldwide through its ever-expanding hi5 Games channel.

hi5 users can play Poker Palace directly from the hi5 Games page, with no separate application installation and a consistent look and feel - leading to a much better experience for players. Through the virtual currency integration, users can purchase chips in Poker Palace using their hi5 Coins and play with users worldwide. The game, which is live on hi5 today, will be prominently featured on the hi5 Games page.

"Every major social network is talking about virtual currencies in the future, but we are doing it today," said Ramu Yalamanchi, founder and chief product officer of hi5. "Direct user transactions are central to our social entertainment strategy, and Poker Palace provides a logical monetization hook with integration to hi5 Coins, the virtual currency our users are already accustomed to using on the site. As one of the largest and fastest-growing social game developers, Playdom is a great partner for us to bring this game category to our users."

Launched in December 2008, the hi5 Coins virtual currency is rapidly enabling a vibrant online economy. Users can get real currency into the system through a wide variety of payment providers around the world, or by earning hi5 Coins through offers and other activities. In addition to in-game transactions, hi5 Coins can be redeemed for virtual goods, gifts, subscriptions and other services on the site. With the ability to integrate to this global payment infrastructure, hi5 has created a compelling new monetization option for third-party game developers.

"The integration effort with the hi5 Games channel was seamless, and we're excited to extend our reach to include hi5's large global user base," said Dan Yue, CEO and co-founder of Playdom. "hi5 offers a compelling distribution channel to game developers. In addition to leveraging hi5's virtual currency, we gain prominent placement in the hi5 Games channel and hooks into hi5's viral marketing engine."

The companies expect to integrate additional Playdom titles into hi5 in the future. Playdom already boasts several of the most popular social games. hi5 is also working with a number of third-party partners to bring additional games to market, which will be launched in the coming weeks.

Source: hi5 Networks