myYearbook

myYearbook is a social networking website, headquartered in New Hope, PA, United States. Members can make new friends by creating profiles, interacting through chatter, a real-time stream, sending virtual gifts, and playing games. Since its launch myYearbook has grown to be one of the top teen sites and one of the 25 most trafficked sites in the US. Quantcast reports MyYearbook has 4.7 million monthly unique US Visitors and 5.4 million globally It is estimated by Alexa that 77% of the website's visitors are from the US, where it has a traffic rank of 390.

History

myYearbook was initially created by two high school students, David and Catherine Cook, and their older brother Geoff, during Spring Break of 2005. Catherine persuaded Geoff, who founded EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com from a dorm in 1997, to invest in their project. At the launch of the site in April 2005, Dave was a junior and Catherine was a sophomore; the project was initially activated at Montgomery High School, in suburban New Jersey where they attended. The site was created entirely by developers in India.

In 2008, myYearbook partnered with casual game developer Arkadium to bring Flash based games to the site. The games incorporate Lunch Money, the myYearbook virtual currency. Lunch Money earned playing games are used elsewhere on the site.

In April 2009, the site added the Meebo instant messaging client to the site in order to provide real time chat.

In November 2009, myYearbook launched Chatter, a real-time stream that incorporates media sharing and gaming to help bring members together. Games you can play inside the stream include Ask Me, Rate Me and 2 Truths and a Lie. These games incorporate mechanics that help myYearbook members meet each other. By April 2010 the site reported the Chatter feature surpassed 1 million posts per day.

In January 2010, myYearbook rolled out a new site design aimed to appeal to an older demographic. Of note is the "winning" site design was chosen through crowd-sourcing its members.

In May 2010, myYearbook launched an iPhone/iPod Touch and Android application designed to bring the Chatter real time feed to mobile devices .

Revenue model

myYearbook derives its revenue from three sources - advertising, virtual-currency sales and monthly subscriptions. Advertising makes up two-thirds of its revenue, with the other sources making up the rest. It has an established sales office based in New York City and Los Angeles.

In February, 2010, myYearbook reported the company ended 2009 with a $20 million dollar run rate. In December of 2010, myYearbook partnered with Viximo service to provide better gaming opportunities for users.

Virtual economy

myYearbook includes a virtual economy through which members earn and spend "Lunch Money," the myYearbook virtual currency. Lunch Money enables the purchasing of gifts which members can send to each other. Lunch Money can also be donated by members to their favorite charity through the Causes application.