Bunchball
 | |
| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Rajat Paharia |
| URL | www |
| Launched | 2005 |
| Current status | Active |
Bunchball provides a cloud-based software as a service gamification product intended to help companies improve customer loyalty and online engagement using game mechanics.[1] Bunchball was founded by Rajat Paharia in 2005 and has raised $17.5 million in funding.[2][3][4]
History
In 2005, Rajat Paharia founded Bunchball.[5][6] He approached companies like Facebook, Myspace, and dating websites with the proposition of integrating social games.[7] Bunchball received initial financing from Sunil Singh, the CEO of Informance International, and Payman Pouladdej, an angel investor.[8]
In October 2006, the company closed a $2 million Series A investment round from Granite Ventures and Adobe Ventures.[5][9] In 2007, NBC hired Bunchball to develop a community website called Dunder Mifflin Infinity for the popular comedy show, The Office.[10] In 2007, Bunchball transitioned from social gaming and launched Nitro, which allows organizations to implement game mechanics in social networks, mobile applications, and websites.[11]
In January 2008, Bunchball received an additional $4 million in a Series B funding round from return investors Granite Ventures and Adobe Ventures.[8] At the time of the announcement, Bunchball had 28 employees.[12] In June 2010, Bunchball closed a $6.5 million Series C funding round from Triangle Peak Partners, Northport Investments, Correlation Ventures and Granite Ventures.[13] Bunchball now has 60 employees and has raised $21 million to date.[2][14]
Software
Bunchball Nitro is a gamification platform which aims to motivate online user engagement.[15] It contains a set of game mechanics, including badges, team points, and leader boards for websites, social communities, mobile applications, and desktop and enterprise applications.[6][13] It currently generates 70 million unique users and 2.3 billion actions each month.[16][17][18] In March 2012, Bunchball released an updated version of Nitro, code-named Flamethrower.[14]
Bunchball Nitro for Salesforce motivates sales teams by adding gamification to Salesforce.com.[11] The Jive Gamification Module is an add-on module of the Jive social business platform, and is powered by Bunchball Nitro.[17] It gives users a set of missions to complete, each of which exposes them to a critical piece of functionality within the Jive platform.[17] Nitro for IBM Connections helps businesses train new users and keep existing users engaged within the IBM Connections application.[19] Using the Nitro platform, businesses can employ gamification techniques, like completing missions and earning rewards, to engage users with IBM Connections.[19]
Major projects
In 2007, 40,000 people generated more than 1 million page views on Dunder Mifflin Infinity, a separate NBC Universal website which Bunchball developed. Dunder Mifflin Infinity gives users the experience of being an "employee" at Dunder Mifflin, the fictional company featured in the show.[20]
In 2009, the USA Network hired Bunchball to “gamify” the website of Psych, a television show.[21][22] Page views surged to 16 million last season, up from 9 million the season before.[23][24] The average visitor came 4 to 5 times per month, compared with just twice a month the previous season, and stayed on the site for 22 minutes a visit, up from 14 minutes.[23][24]
In December 2010, Bunchball Nitro powered Playboy’s Facebook app, called Miss Social, which was a month-long competition between women who aspired to be in Playboy.[25][26] Due to the competition, Playboy saw an 85 percent rate of re-engagement and a 60 percent improvement in revenues from one month to the next. Since starting the app in December, Playboy’s active user base has grown to 80,000.[25][26]
In 2011, Bunchball partnered up with the Los Angeles Kings to gamify their fan website.[7][27]
References
- ^ Start-Ups And Corporations Alike Having Fun With Gamification The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ a b Sinsky, Regina. Work with the cool kids! Culture is a weapon in 2011's hiring battle CNET.
- ^ Commercialising Ideas Archived October 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine XMedia Lab.
- ^ Speakers Archived 2012-06-11 at the Wayback Machine Engage Expo.
- ^ a b Taylor, Colleen. For Startups, Timing Is Everything — Just Ask Bunchball The New York Times. May 2, 2011.
- ^ a b Bunchball Brings Gamification Platform to Salesforce.com Gamification Blog.
- ^ a b Macale, Sherilynn. Bunchball wants to be the motivation engine for the internet TheNextWeb. October 27, 2011.
- ^ a b Glazowski, Paul. Bunchball’s $4m Funding To Expand Social Gaming Footprint Into 2009 Mashable. April 13, 2008.
- ^ Cashmore, Pete. Bunchball raises 2 million for Myspace games Mashable. October 20, 2006.
- ^ Hsu, Jeremy. Gamification Pioneer Talks Power of Behavior-Altering Games Archived 2012-01-19 at the Wayback Machine Innovation News Daily.
- ^ a b Shayon, Sheila. Social Media Gamer Bunchball Adds Brand-Friendly Apps brandchannel. August 24, 2011.
- ^ Macmillan, Douglas. ‘Gamification’: A Growing Business Bloomberg Businessweek. January 19, 2011.
- ^ a b Takahashi, Dean. Bunchball raises $6.5M for gamification expansion VentureBeat. June 13, 2011.
- ^ a b Takahashi, Dean. Bunchball personalizes “Flamethrower” gamification for each user VentureBeat. March 14, 2012.
- ^ PCD Stanford. February 19, 2010.
- ^ Wang, Ray. News Analysis: Bunchball Gamifies Salesforce.com And Delivers Simplified Applets Forbes. August 24, 2011.
- ^ a b c Products Bunchball.
- ^ Odell, Patricia. Missions, Leader Boards, News Feeds Style "Rio" Sweeps Site PROMO. April 12, 2011.
- ^ a b Nitro for IBM Connections. Bunchball.
- ^ Steinberg, Brian. Why Doctor House Gets Condolence Messages AdAge.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean. TV network taps game startups to launch social game portal VentureBeat.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean. USA Network scores with gamificaion on Psych TV show VentureBeat. January 21, 2011.
- ^ a b Pham, Alex. Businesses are using game mechanics online to rev up sales Los Angeles Times. February 28, 2011.
- ^ a b Knight, Kristina. How brands can capitalize on gaming trends BizReport. April 13, 2011.
- ^ a b Takahashi, Dean. With Playboy as proof, Bunchball says gamification works VentureBeat. May 3, 2011.
- ^ a b 5 Brands with Winning Gamification Strategies TheNextWeb.
- ^ Sniderman, Zachary. L.A Kings Are First Pro Sports Team to Get Gamified Mashable.
