Bunchball provides a
cloud
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...
-based
software as a service
Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software.
SaaS is con ...
gamification
Gamification is the strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities by creating similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users. This is generally accomplished thro ...
product intended to help companies improve customer loyalty and online engagement using game mechanics.
[Start-Ups And Corporations Alike Having Fun With Gamification]
''The Wall Street Journal''. Bunchball was founded by Rajat Paharia in 2005 and has raised $17.5 million in funding.
[Sinsky, Regina]
Work with the cool kids! Culture is a weapon in 2011's hiring battle
''CNET''.[Commercialising Ideas]
''XMedia Lab''.
''Engage Expo''.
History
In 2005, Rajat Paharia founded Bunchball.
[Taylor, Colleen]
''The New York Times''. May 2, 2011.[Bunchball Brings Gamification Platform to Salesforce.com]
''Gamification Blog''. He approached companies like
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
,
Myspace, and dating websites with the proposition of integrating social games.
[Macale, Sherilynn]
Bunchball wants to be the motivation engine for the internet
''TheNextWeb''. October 27, 2011. Bunchball received initial financing from Sunil Singh, the CEO of Informance International, and Payman Pouladdej, an angel investor.
[Glazowski, Paul]
Bunchball’s $4m Funding To Expand Social Gaming Footprint Into 2009
''Mashable''. April 13, 2008.
In October 2006, the company closed a $2 million
Series A
A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...
investment round from Granite Ventures and Adobe Ventures.
[Cashmore, Pete]
Bunchball raises 2 million for Myspace games
''Mashable''. October 20, 2006. In 2007, NBC hired Bunchball to develop a community website called Dunder Mifflin Infinity
"Dunder Mifflin Infinity" is the third and fourth episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series ''The Office'', and the show's fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh episode overall. The episode was written by Michael Schur, who ...
for the popular comedy show, The Office
''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries.
The original series of ...
.[Hsu, Jeremy]
Gamification Pioneer Talks Power of Behavior-Altering Games
''Innovation News Daily''. In 2007, Bunchball transitioned from social gaming and launched Nitro, which allows organizations to implement game mechanics in social networks, mobile applications, and websites.[Shayon, Sheila]
Social Media Gamer Bunchball Adds Brand-Friendly Apps
''brandchannel''. August 24, 2011.
In January 2008, Bunchball received an additional $4 million in a Series B
A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...
funding round from return investors Granite Ventures and Adobe Ventures.[ At the time of the announcement, Bunchball had 28 employees.][Macmillan, Douglas]
‘Gamification’: A Growing Business
''Bloomberg Businessweek''. January 19, 2011. In June 2010, Bunchball closed a $6.5 million Series C
A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...
funding round from Triangle Peak Partners, Northport Investments, Correlation Ventures and Granite Ventures.[Takahashi, Dean]
Bunchball raises $6.5M for gamification expansion
''VentureBeat''. June 13, 2011. Bunchball now has 60 employees and has raised $21 million to date.[Takahashi, Dean]
Bunchball personalizes “Flamethrower” gamification for each user
''VentureBeat''. March 14, 2012.
Software
Bunchball Nitro is a gamification platform which aims to motivate online user engagement.
''Stanford''. February 19, 2010.[ It currently generates 70 million unique users and 2.3 billion actions each month.][Wang, Ray]
News Analysis: Bunchball Gamifies Salesforce.com And Delivers Simplified Applets
''Forbes''. August 24, 2011.[Products]
''Bunchball''.[Odell, Patricia]
Missions, Leader Boards, News Feeds Style "Rio" Sweeps Site
''PROMO''. April 12, 2011. In March 2012, Bunchball released an updated version of Nitro, code-named Flamethrower.[
Bunchball Nitro for ]Salesforce
Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...
motivates sales teams by adding gamification to Salesforce.com.[ The Jive Gamification Module is an add-on module of the Jive social business platform, and is powered by Bunchball Nitro.][ It gives users a set of missions to complete, each of which exposes them to a critical piece of functionality within the Jive platform.][ Nitro for IBM Connections helps businesses train new users and keep existing users engaged within the ]IBM Connections
HCL Connections is a Web 2.0 enterprise social software application developed originally by IBM and acquired by HCL Technologies in July 2019. Connections is an enterprise-collaboration platform which helps teams work more efficiently. Connecti ...
application.[Nitro for IBM Connections]
''Bunchball''. Using the Nitro platform, businesses can employ gamification techniques, like completing missions and earning rewards, to engage users with IBM Connections
HCL Connections is a Web 2.0 enterprise social software application developed originally by IBM and acquired by HCL Technologies in July 2019. Connections is an enterprise-collaboration platform which helps teams work more efficiently. Connecti ...
.[
]
Major projects
In 2007, 40,000 people generated more than 1 million page views on Dunder Mifflin Infinity
"Dunder Mifflin Infinity" is the third and fourth episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series ''The Office'', and the show's fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh episode overall. The episode was written by Michael Schur, who ...
, 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.[Steinberg, Brian]
Why Doctor House Gets Condolence Messages
''AdAge''.
In 2009, the USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
hired Bunchball to “gamify” the website of Psych
''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observ ...
, a television show.[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. Page views surged to 16 million last season, up from 9 million the season before.[Pham, Alex]
Businesses are using game mechanics online to rev up sales
''Los Angeles Times''. February 28, 2011.[Knight, Kristina]
''BizReport''. April 13, 2011. 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.[
In December 2010, Bunchball Nitro powered ]Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
’s Facebook app, called Miss Social, which was a month-long competition between women who aspired to be in Playboy.[Takahashi, Dean]
With Playboy as proof, Bunchball says gamification works
''VentureBeat''. May 3, 2011.[5 Brands with Winning Gamification Strategies]
''TheNextWeb''. 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.[
In 2011, Bunchball partnered up with the ]Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...
to gamify their fan website.[Sniderman, Zachary]
L.A Kings Are First Pro Sports Team to Get Gamified
''Mashable''.
References
External links
Official website
*{{Twitter
Bunchball Partners
Cloud applications
Software companies based in California
Companies established in 2005
Gamification
Defunct software companies of the United States