SmallWorlds Partners With Hi5

Today Hi5 announced that it would partner with the SmallWorlds virtual world. The partnership provides for full integration of SmallWorlds into the Hi5 Games channel, with Hi5 Coins to serve as SmallWorlds's virtual currency in the version of the game that runs on Hi5's OpenSocial platform. SmallWorlds is a 3D virtual world designed for integration into social networks that currently has versions running on Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo.

Unlike versions on other social networks, the Hi5 version of SmallWorlds will not need to be manually installed by users. Instead, users will be able to run it directly from the Hi5 Games channel. Once within SmallWorlds, users can engage in usual virtual world fare like designing avatars, decorating homes, adopting virtual pets, and sharing media with other users. Hi5 users of SmallWorlds will have full access to the company's Interactibles framework, which lets users design content for each other.

With Hi5 Coins, SmallWorlds users will be able to purchase virtual goods like avatar enhancements, room upgrades, and rare monthly collectible items. Revenue for SmallWorlds microtransactions will be shared between SmallWorlds and Hi5, who are essentially providing the virtual world's payment platform and handling promotional duties for the game on the Hi5 network. SmallWorlds marks the third such high-profile content integration for Hi5 in recent months, following content integrations with the RockYou virtual pets application and Playdom's Poker Palace app.

"At the high level, this is part of a big overarching strategy for Hi5, which is to partner with third party game developers and incorporate their content in a seamless way into Hi5 and in particular to integrate them into our Hi5 Coins virtual currency," said Hi5 Vice President of Marketing Michael Trigg. "This is an ongoing process for us and part of a bigger trend that's happening in a social media space overall. We refer to what we do as social entertainment but this is a big area that a lot of companies want to figure out. We think we're in the lead position here."

Hi5 Executive Producer Andrew Sheppard claims that this strategy is paying big dividends for the company. He says the deals are "stacking up," with new partners agreeing to deeper Hi5 integrations including support for Hi5 Coins at a remarkable pace. At the same time, Sheppard says that the integration process is getting much easier and the turn-around time faster. He claims that at this point many partners can be integrated in as little as a week's time.

"The beauty of everything we're doing right now is that it feeds into our users' interest in roleplaying. And I don't mean that in a fantasy or sci-fi context, but this is something Mike and other members of the team here have been thinking about for the past few quarters. It's about creating an 'aspirational you'," said Sheppard. "Our users have very strong interests in representing who they are and defining themselves in a way online that is different or more aspirational than they are in real life. That's why we have the emphasis on the Games initiative, they're a logical way to create an 'aspirational you'."

Join us for the App Developers Conference – October 26-27, 2011 in Santa Clara