Operators and Consumers Score With Digital Chocolate and Amobee Partnership to Ad-Fund Mobile Games

SAN MATEO, Calif. & REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Digital Chocolate, Inc., a leading developer and publisher of original, high-quality, games and applications for mobile phones, and Amobee Media Systems, a leading provider of telco-grade mobile advertising solutions, today announced a partnership to use Amobee’s Handset Application Programming Interface (HAPI) to provide support to a selection of Digital Chocolate’s mobile game titles. Digital Chocolate and Amobee Media Systems will collaborate on an ad-funded business model wherein select game titles will soon be offered by multiple mobile operators worldwide.

Through the partnership, Digital Chocolate will integrate Amobee’s HAPI, a small SDK file that enables mobile phones to receive ads from Amobee’s mobile ad-server, to condition and prepare the mobile games to receive ads. Further, HAPI’s flexibility enables game publishers to show ads in game, based on their preferences.

“The ad-funded approach is an exciting and innovative way for game publishers and operators to drive more downloads and usage. This is especially true for Digital Chocolate where we want to expose as many users as possible to the highest quality mobile games in the industry,” said Gary Schofield, President of Networks at Digital Chocolate. “We chose to collaborate with Amobee on this initiative since its HAPI approach is an easy and flexible way to integrate networked ads into applications, making ad-funding games simple and hassle-free.”

Advertisements, which will be delivered interstitially during idle game time, dynamically in the game environment or as banner ads, are designed to be opt-in and non-intrusive. Additionally, subscribers can choose to receive additional information or initiate a transaction (e.g., receiving more information, calling the advertiser, or purchasing the item being advertised).

“Digital Chocolate has a legacy of developing quality, long lasting games that ‘wow’ consumers. Our work with Digital Chocolate is poised to change the landscape in mobile gaming by providing subscribers, advertisers and operators more games for less, based on ad-funded business model,” said Zohar Levkovitz, Amobee CEO.

About Amobee Media Systems:

Amobee Media Systems has built and designed the first and only telco-grade ad-serving solution 100% dedicated to mobile operators, allowing them to dynamically insert advertising impressions in all forms of mobile communication and content: WAP Browsing, Video & Music, SMS, MMS, and Games etc... Amobee’s complete ad serving solution is designed to facilitate the launch of advertising campaigns for brand building, direct response and lead generation campaigns helping mobile operators and their subscribers to “get more for less”. The company has also engaged advertisers and media buying agencies to directly purchase ad inventory as part of Amobee’s growing advertising network.

Amobee’s media system is capable of supporting everything from in-game and in-video to in-wap and in-message mobile impression insertions. The insertions occur with full user consent and are made in a relevant, contextual and non-intrusive manner thus increasing the media value while giving users control over the engagement. Headquartered in the San Francisco, the company enjoys financial backing from some of the biggest names in venture capital: Accel Partners (www.accel.com [1]), Sequoia Capital (www.sequoiacap.com [2]), and Globespan (www.globespancapital.com [3]). Amobee has commercial offices in London and San Francisco, with engineering in Herzliya, Israel.

About Digital Chocolate

Digital Chocolate is a leading developer of original, high-quality games and applications for mobile phones. Based in San Mateo, California and founded in 2003 by software gaming pioneer Trip Hawkins, Digital Chocolate offers some of the world's most popular and top-rated games, already earning over 20 Game of the Year Awards and over 50 Editor's Awards by top gaming press. In 2006 and 2007, it was named Best Games Developer at the Mobile Entertainment Awards, decided by a voting panel of over 300 mobile company executives including leading Operators, OEMs, Publishers and Developers. It was also named a 2006 Fierce 15 emerging wireless company for its innovation around community, networked and social games with products like award-winning MLSN Sports Picks, and newly released AvaPeeps^TM: FlirtNation. Since its inception, Digital Chocolate has secured relationships with more than 200 carriers and partners, including Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cingular, Orange and 3 and its products are available in over 60 countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.digitalchocolate.com [4].