Social Network hi5 Hires Video Game Pioneer as President

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In an enigmatic turn of events, Social networking site hi5 hired pioneer video gaming veteran Alex St. John. This anticipative move reflects hi5’s intentions to transform its site into a social entertainment hub. John would be the new president and chief technology officer of the company. He would be responsible for its product development, technology, network operations and audience acquisition. He has been one of the pioneers in Microsoft’s efforts in computing and evolution of XBox gaming. More recently, St. John founded the online gaming company WildTangent. St. John inclusion in the management could make a big difference for hi5.

Most of hi5 fans must be eager to know, what’s going on with their site.  hi5 thrives with 60 million of its own registered users. Developing games especially for them (complete with in-game ads and virtual goods) makes smart business sense.

Let’s take a pick at St.John’s plans about hi5 as provided to VentureBeat

hi5 thrives with 60 million of its own registered users. St. John acknowledged in an interview that hi5 needs to prove it can be more competitive in the social gaming market against the likes of Facebook and its game publishers like Zynga. But he said that the social gaming market isn’t locked up; rather, he said, it is just beginning…. [I]n today’s market it will be easier to use the large audience and platform of hi5 to grow a social games and entertainment business.

To dig further into the matter we need to go through the excepts of the press release by Hi5

St. John led several key revenue innovations at WildTangent, including a highly successful virtual currency, WildCoins, used for microcurrency transactions, and an advertising partnership with WPP to sell sponsored microcurrency to Fortune 500 brands.

Hi5 has already embellished its site with a virtual currency, a games portal, chat and avatars for users. It’s only matter of time before hi5 would realize St. John’s impact on their business.

Source:  VentureBeat