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VentureBeat: Video of Arrington-Shukla fight highlights controversy of special offers
TechCrunch: Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell
The Inquisitr » Technology: On Incentive Offers in Facebook, the truth lies somewhere in the middle
Reactions
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Anu Shukla got fired and totally deserved it http://bit.ly/2JEELA #VGSummit 28 days ago |
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Just watched the Arrington vs.Shukla: Virtual Goods Controversy http://bit.ly/2jGwn1 seemed to have missed this somehow. 11/6/2009 |
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Controversy at the Virtual Goods Summit: Arrington vs. Shukla http://bit.ly/2JEELA #socialgaming 11/2/2009 |
Video of Arrington-Shukla fight highlights controversy of special offers
VentureBeat —
TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington and Offerpal Media chief executive Anu Shukla got into a brouhaha over special offers, which are used to monetize social apps on social networks, at the close of the Virtual Goods Summit on Friday.
At the close of a panel where Shukla spoke, Arrington asked how Shukla could defend her business of making offers that were leading the social game industry “into hell.” Shukla responded with a long answer about why Arrington’s commentary was “shit, double shit and bullshit.” You can see Alexa Lee’s video on the whole 10-minute exchange below. I also interviewed Shukla about ...
Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell
TechCrunch —
Last weekend I wrote about how the big social gaming companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue on Facebook and MySpace through games like Farmville and Mobsters. Major media can’t stop applauding the companies long enough to understand what’s really going on with these games. The real story isn’t the business success of these startups. It’s the completely unethical way that they are going about achieving that success.
In short, these games try to get people to pay cash for in game currency so they can level up faster and have a better overall experience. Which is fine. But for users who won’t pay ...
On Incentive Offers in Facebook, the truth lies somewhere in the middle
The Inquisitr » Technology —
My old boss Michael Arrington has made headlines over the weekend when a video of him going mental at OfferPal CEO Anu Shukla at Friday’s Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco emerged online.
Michael’s gripe seems to be that users of free Facebook applications are duped when they sign up for services in return for not having to pay cash for Facebook game goodies. What should have been a reasonable argument about some deceptive advertisers in the industry naturally broke down when Michael basically accused Zygna, OfferPal, and seemingly Netflix of defrauding users…oh, and for good measure he accused Facebook of being ...
Offers controversy stirs reactions across social networking industry
VentureBeat —
A relatively obscure part of the social networking business has come into the limelight. It’s about special ads known as “offers” which are used to monetize free social games. These offers are like the ads that promise you a discount on your Amazon.com purchases if you sign up for a free credit card.
They’ve gained in importance because they’re a way that users can enjoy advanced features of the apps or games which normally cost money — without shelling out cash. You can pay for an extra weapon in a game with a credit card, or you can participate in an offer without paying.
But Techcrunch editor Michael ...
Offerpal CEO Who Called Accusations "S--t, Double S--t, And Bulls--t" Is Out
Silicon Alley Insider —
Offerpal CEO Who Called Accusations "S--t, Double S--t, And Bulls--t" Is Out Sponsored Link: Advertisement
ScamVille: New Offerpal CEO Admits Mistakes, Makes Bold Promises
TechCrunch —
Yesterday Offerpal Media changed CEOs. Cofounder Anu Shukla, who just last week denied that her company engaged in any questionable advertising on social gaming applications, was replaced by veteran startup executive George Garrick. For all the background, see our Scamville post and the related updates at the end.
Garrick, who has been the CEO of Offerpal for less than 48 hours, is already taking a polar opposite approach to his predecessor. He left a lengthy comment, reprinted below, on a post earlier today about Facebook’s policy and enforcement changes around application offers.
The full comment is ...
