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description=Kixeye, a social game developer in San Francisco, doesn t attract much attention -- and that perhaps provides a clue to how the company has managed to flourish on Facebook while others have wiped out or stalled.;

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Text of the page (random words):
kixeye thrives on facebook where others flail los angeles times news home page california election 2024 housing homelessness politics science medicine world nation business artificial intelligence autos jobs labor workplace real estate technology and the internet california california politics earthquakes education housing homelessness l a politics mental health climate environment global warming water drought entertainment arts arts books stand up comedy company town the envelope awards movies music television things to do de los en español food 101 best restaurants in l a recipes image lifestyle health wellness home design l a affairs plants travel experiences weekend things to do in l a obituaries opinion editorials letters to the editor op ed short docs sports angels angel city fc chargers clippers dodgers ducks galaxy high school sports kings lakers olympics usc ucla rams sparks times everywhere 404 by l a times facebook instagram la times today newsletters photography podcasts short docs tiktok threads video youtube x twitter for subscribers all sections _________________ enewspaper about us about us archives company news enewspaper for the record got a tip l a times careers l a times store l a times studios news app apple ios news app google play newsroom directory public affairs rights clearance permissions short docs advertising place an ad classifieds coupons people on the move find post jobs local ads marketplace media kit why the l a times hot property sections place an open house sotheby s international realty bestcovery compare b2b publishing business visionaries hot property crossword games l a times events l a times store subscriptions manage subscription ezpay delivery issue enewspaper students educators subscribe subscriber terms gift subscription terms special supplements escapes travel adventure eta healthy living las vegas guide philanthropy copyright 2024 los angeles times terms of service privacy policy ca notice of collection do not sell or share my personal information sections tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article focus mode show search search query submit search advertisement technology and the internet kixeye thrives on facebook where others flail by alex pham aug 22 2012 4 22 pm pt facebook twitter show more sharing options share close extra sharing options facebook twitter linkedin email copy link url copied print kixeye a social game developer in san francisco doesn t attract much attention and that perhaps provides a clue to how the company has managed to flourish on facebook while others have wiped out or stalled kixeye has little more than 5 3 million players a month on facebook according to appdata com by contrast kixeye s crosstown rival zynga has 284 million that makes zynga the largest game publisher on facebook while kixeye is much further down the list at no 66 kixeye s biggest game war commander has just 2 5 million players a month compared with 58 8 million for zynga s the ville but kixeye has something zynga does not two consecutive years of profitability in 2010 and 2011 and another one on the way for this calendar year zynga meanwhile posted a loss for its latest financial second quarter and lowered its expectations for the full year citing facebook s challenging conditions echoing the sentiment of many other developers over the rising cost of attracting new players on the social network advertisement kixeye on the other hand holds the exact opposite view about facebook the 5 year old company has quietly built a growing business with revenue that s expected to triple this year the privately held firm declined to disclose its projected 2012 sales figures but said they will hit nine figures meaning at least 100 million more than 10 of kixeye s players end up spending money to play compared with 1 to 4 for most other social game publishers there are other attributes that set kixeye apart from its rivals and the company gleefully makes fun of those differences in a wickedly funny video entitled zombiecastlerescue bonus points if you can identify which competitors are referenced in the video how did kixeye succeed in the remorselessly darwinian environment of facebook will harbin kixeye s chief executive and brandon barber the company s senior vice president of marketing took some time to explain their formula in recent interviews with the times here s an edited transcript of the conversations q what s so special about kixeye s games that brings such a high percentage of paying players harbin for one thing our games are actually games we spend a lot less time than other companies thinking up ways to get people to pay we start with a core game loop that keeps people engaged battle pirates is about building an empire and competing with other players to conquer new territory it s a tried and true genre the more fun people have the more they will play and the more they play the more likely they are to pay q what do they pay for advertisement harbin we don t have any exclusive content that you have to spend real money on everything we have can be earned by playing the game but if you want it sooner you can pay for that instead of waiting we simply monetize the impatience q who are your players barber between 97 and 98 of our players are male on average each of our players checks in three to four times a day for more than 30 minutes each session they stay with each game for eight months on average which is five times longer than most social games q what s your formula for succeeding on facebook harbin if you want to be a successful independent publisher you have to master three basic things the first is that you need a good game design the game has to be fun the second thing is to be able to iterate your game based on metrics or feedback from your players you have to treat your game like a service that you need to constantly improve for years to come and third you need to know performance marketing you have to know how to efficiently find players through targeted ad buying and other viral channels and be able to funnel players to your games we have 1 000 ads running at any given second each sliced and diced by age gender likes affinities and geographic location advertisement q how effective are the facebook ads harbin we owe much of our success to the facebook ad platform it lets us target an infinite number of demographic combinations maybe 20 to 30 of our total population of players came to us by clicking on those ads we re working with facebook to reach users who don t click on ads q facebook frequently changes its formula for choosing what to show its 900 million users in their feeds these changes often tie developers in knots because they influence what people see and therefore what they click on including games how have these changes affected kixeye barber facebook is a dynamic platform they make changes we make changes we look at those changes as the cost of doing business we re looking at the same changes as every other developer and we re thriving because we re able to adapt developers who blame facebook for not succeeding are just plain lazy q if facebook is the be all why build your own kixeye com platform barber our players are overwhelmingly male between 25 years and 35 years old not all of them use facebook many of them are extremely competitive and they just want to play games they re not interested in the viral social aspects of social networks advertisement harbin we re not leaving facebook we have three games and four more in development for facebook that is where we re placing our bets but we are developing our own platform so we can go after a different quadrant of users who may not use facebook also kabam spreads its wings beyond facebook zynga shares fall 41 on disappointing financials facebook s high costs are driving away game developers follow alex pham on twitter advertisement more to read you want to break into the video game industry here s how jan 17 2024 column 2023 was the year of comeuppance for billionaires culture warriors crypto and corporate managements dec 21 2023 why snoop dogg and his son are launching death row games you gotta have representation nov 16 2023 technology and the internet more from the los angeles times business google employees stage sit ins to protest company s contract with israel april 17 2024 company town news publishers alliance calls on feds to investigate google for limiting california links april 16 2024 world nation u s china competition to build drone swarms could fuel global arms race analysts say april 12 2024 company town google says it will reduce some user access to california news sites april 12 2024 advertisement latest technology company town roku says 576 000 accounts were hacked in latest breach april 12 2024 travel experiences this l a escape room explores corporate greed and shows how corruptible you really are april 10 2024 world nation brazilian supreme court justice orders investigation of 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