Sunnyvale, California — The Yahoo Application Platform (or Y!AP) grew remarkably more appealing today. Yahoo! is apparently getting cozy with Offerpal Media with dreams and desires to create a viable multiplayer gaming social platform to compete with Facebook.
The companies have announced a deal that ensures that the third-party monetization provider will be available for developers on the Yahoo’s application platform.
Fremont, Calif.-based Offerpal supports alternative payment systems such as special offers for users who do not want to or cannot pay for games or the virtual goods in them with credit cards. An offer is an ad that asks for an action, such as signing up for a Netflix subscription, in lieu of a payment.
An announcement related to this partnership described that Offerpal deals in “[a] complete set of alternative payment options, including surveys, videos, shopping rewards, tasks and other methods of acquiring virtual currency for free.”
It is an association that makes logic for both, but the question is still this: will developers be able to succeed in locating valuable new users through Yahoo? Developers will need Yahoo to help deliver large audiences to monetize through the advertising offers or payments options that Offerpal provides.
By furnishing an offer solution for Yahoo’s platform, Offerpal will let the third-party application developers who publish on Yahoo — which reaches more than 600 million users per month — make more money from their social games or other apps.
Developers will now be able to provide users with “thousands of free trials, discounts, promotions and other currency-based advertising offers from big brands such as Netflix, Disney, Discover Card, New York Times, DirecTV and many others,” too.
By making alliance with Yahoo, Offerpal moves another step forward in the resuscitating its reputation. Offerpal’s alternative payment options include filling out surveys, watching videos, earning shopping rewards and performing other tasks that can earn users virtual currency, which they can spend inside their games on things such as better weapons.
“We are thrilled to be working with Yahoo! to help developers more easily and effectively monetize their applications on the Yahoo! Application Platform,” said George Garrick, chief executive of Offerpal Media. Offerpal was founded in 2007 and it has 75 employees. It can reach more than 225 million consumers across 2,000 publishers. Investors include Interwest Capital, North Bridge Venture Partners, and D. E. Shaw Ventures.
Yahoo is confronted with the growth of Facebook and other online communication services like Twitter, that dislodges its position as the central web portal in people’s lives. Like other web companies, Yahoo is trying to attract social game developers to build on its developer platform, the hope being that games will bring more people back to its site more often, just like apps have for many users on Facebook.
Yahoo! is just resolute enough to make the right moves to become a force in social gaming. And, Yahoo!’s CEO Carol Bartz wants to make money, and not save the world. If she does not pull a rabbit out of the hat soon, Yahoo! is over. Social games may be their best bet to survive and they know it.