Vostu

Last updated
Vostu
Private
IndustryMobile Games
Social Games
FoundedMay, 2007
Headquarters
Buenos Aires   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
,
Brazil   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Number of locations
 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Key people
Daniel Kafie, CEO
Fernando Piccolo, CTO
Angel Mazzarello, CPO
Florentino Arce, CFO
Website www.vostu.com

Vostu was the largest social games developer in Brazil and Latin America in the early 2010s. The company was started in 2007 by Daniel Kafie, Mario Schlosser, and Joshua Kushner.

Contents

The main games developed by Vostu were Topfarm, Café Mania, MegaCity, Mini Fazenda, GolMania, Candy Dash, Riddle Pic, Shaking Vegas, Magic Valley, among others. These social games are available on Orkut, Facebook and Google +. Today, more than 100 million users are registered in Vostu applications: one in every four Brazilians play one or more of their products.

In 2011, the company was considered by Forbes Magazine as one of the top 10 startups in Brazil [1] and Business Insider included it in the list of 100 world's most valuable startups. [2] The company's current value is unknown and the company keeps secret about that value. However, TechCrunch had estimated at one time that its market value could reach $300 million. In 2011, the company announced the purchase of MP Game Studio, a company dedicated to casual & multiplayer games, expanding its portfolio of games. Later that same year, the company was sued by Zynga, alleging copyright infringement. An agreement between the companies closed the case. [3]

In early 2012, Vostu conducted a restructuring of the company's departments, unifying developments of the games in the Buenos Aires, Argentina office and business operations in Brazil. [4] In mid-2012, the company shows the results of this restructuring with the launch of new social, casual and mobile games. [5]

By mid-2013, however, the company had laid off as much as two thirds of its personnel, with Schlosser and Kafie resigning their positions, and "internal management and political issues with the engineering and product teams" rendering the company "organizationally unable to add features or service games in a way that would keep players engaged". [6]

Games

Mobile

Social

Discontinued

Partnerships and platforms

Many brands and celebrities have signed partnership with Vostu Games.

Platforms

Partnerships

Brands

In May 2011, a new machine reached Café Mania in which players could serve different flavors of Guaraná Antarctica for Ronaldo and Claudia Leitte. To prepare the drinks, players had to collect guaranás from guaraná plants outside of restaurants. [7]

In September 2011 arrived some AdeS recipes at Café Mania. Players could serve dishes and coffees prepared with the company's products. In addition to new recipes in the game, Vostu also created a contest in which players had to take a picture of one of the AdeS’ recipes done in real life, competing for game credits. [8]

This was an action of its cross-media campaign on TV, where Del Valle Juices tells why their juices were so tasty. At the Mini Fazenda, users received from their friends "Watering Cans of Affection" to care for their crops and winning the "Tender Touch", which sped up their crops and made them yield more. The promotion was launched in September 2011.

In that same month, Vostu has partnered with Netflix to offer their players a lot of credit to sign up for the service of the company. Café Mania was one of the games that had provided this offer available only to Orkut players. This promotion reappeared many times in the game with other offers of credit.

Pepsi, Visa and Vivo went as partners in the Vostu GolMania launch in September 2011 and had their brands exposed in the middle of the soccer fields and on the boards of sponsorship, as well as in real soccer matches.

Broadening participation in GolMania in December 2011 two of the most important teams in America arrived at the game with the construction of stadiums and the possibility to play with their uniforms.

In November 2011, Corinthians came in Mega City with exclusive items of Timão for fans include in their cities. Furthermore, it was possible to build a replica of Corinthians future stadium, apply for tickets for the 2012 Paulistão games and shirts autographed by players from the team.

First Brazilian club to participate in GolMania, the Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama launched its stadium in April 2012. With the partnership, users can also play from the club's official fanpage on Facebook.

In May 2012, Ketchup Hellmann’s arrived in Mini Fazenda. The players had to receive special tomato seeds from their friends, plant them, and when harvesting Hellman's tomatoes, the players had to process them in the machine to receive special items such as profitable ketchups, potion to speed crops, tomatoes guardians of crops etc.

The partnership between Vostu and Decolar.com was presented in June 2012. The action was based on performance tasks that intended to broaden the interaction between the players of Mega City and the brand that appears on aircraft and on the airports of the "MegaCidades". The strategy of the game leads users to like Decolar.com Fan Page on Facebook and also to fulfill goals such as takeoff and landing aircraft, collect profits from hotels and exchange postcards. [9]

In July 2012, Walmart launched a virtual store in MegaCity that allows users to make purchases via e-commerce. By accessing the platform, the player receives an invitation to make their purchases at the site of Walmart and can earn up to 100 "MegaGranas" at the Roulette of Fortune. The player can also do his shopping at the Walmart store through the game and earn 5% discount. [10]

Celebrities

In May 2011, top model Adriana Lima has recorded a TV commercial to promote the launch of MegaCity.

In June 2011, came into MegaCity several special items of the Brazilian singer Ivete Sangalo. It was added in the game typical buildings of Bahia, Ivete special missions where players earned awards to keep them, one hit dedicated to the singer, the possibility of visiting the island of the singer in the game and an Arena that players could improve it and profit more in the game. Besides, in the game also arrived a Trio Elétrico, where players had the chance to know the singer personally. To do this, players had to gather fans and replace them with coupons to compete. Moreover the novelties in the game, Ivete Sangalo also recorded a TV commercial showing the game, replacing Adriana Lima.

In April 2012, another Brazilian artist arrived in MegaCity, this time it was Michel Teló. Among the novelties in the game related to the singer, there was special constructions, the singer's goals, an Arena and an exclusive remix dedicated to him. Besides, the players also had the chance to win CDs and DVDs from Michel Teló. For that players had to meet all the goals from Michel and then answer a question on item Michel Party.

Related Research Articles

Gol Transportes Aéreos Brazilian airline

GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A B3: GOLL3, GOLL4 / NYSE: GOL is a Brazilian low-cost airline based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. According to the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC), between January and December 2018 GOL had 35.7% of the domestic and 9.6% of the international market shares in terms of passengers per kilometer flown, making it the largest domestic and third largest international airline in Brazil. GOL competes in Brazil and other South American country with Chilean LATAM Airlines Group and Brazilian Azul. It also owns the brand Varig, although now that name refers to what is informally known as the "new" Varig, founded in 2006, not to the extinct "old" Varig airline, founded in 1927.

Maracanã Stadium Stadium in Rio de Janeiro

The Maracanã, officially named the Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, is a stadium in Rio de Janeiro. The stadium is part of a complex that includes an arena known by the name of Maracanãzinho, which means "The Little Maracanã" in Portuguese. Owned by the Rio de Janeiro state government, it is, as is the Maracanã neighborhood where it is located, named after the Rio Maracanã, a now canalized river in Rio de Janeiro.

Digital Chocolate American video game developer

Digital Chocolate, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher headquartered in San Mateo, California. It was founded in 2003 by Trip Hawkins, the founder of video game companies Electronic Arts and The 3DO Company. The company focused on developing games for mobile phones, iOS, and Microsoft Windows, and made some non-entertainment titles. Its marketing motto was Seize the minute.

Bawls

BAWLS Guarana is a highly caffeinated soft drink based on the guarana berry. BAWLS Guarana was created by Hoby Buppert, who formed a business plan for selling a coffee alternative while in business school. Buppert started selling BAWLS Guarana in Florida in 1996 under his company Hobarama. After a computer gaming website praised the soft drink in a 1998 product review, BAWLS Guarana became popular with computer game players, who wanted caffeine to give them energy while playing. This enabled Buppert to start sponsoring gaming events like LAN parties and video game leagues.

Rock in Rio Brazilian music festival

Rock in Rio is a recurring music festival originating in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It later branched into other locations such as Lisbon, Madrid, Las Vegas and Santiago.

Universo Online Brazilian web content, products and services firm

Universo Online is a Brazilian web content, products and services firm. It belongs to Grupo Folha enterprise. As of January 2015, UOL's website is ranked 73 on SimilarWeb and ranked 108 on Alexa Internet globally.

<i>Mega Man II</i> (Game Boy) 1991 Game Boy game

Mega Man II is an action-platform video game by Capcom for the Game Boy. It is the second game in the handheld version of the Mega Man series after Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. It is noteworthy for having been developed by a different company than the rest of the Mega Man titles on the Game Boy.

Ivete Sangalo Brazilian singer

Ivete Maria Dias de Sangalo Cady is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, and occasional actress and television show host. She is one of the most popular and best-selling Brazilian female singers, with six albums released with Banda Eva, and seven more albums in a solo career. Sangalo is noted for her powerful voice, charisma and live performances. Her music is also very popular in Portugal. She has sold 20 million copies of her albums.

Tectoy Brazilian video game and electronics company

Tec Toy S.A., trading as Tectoy since late 2007, is a Brazilian toy and electronics company headquartered in São Paulo. It is best known for producing, publishing, and distributing Sega consoles and video games in Brazil. The company was founded by Daniel Dazcal, Leo Kryss, and Abe Kryss in 1987 because Dazcal saw an opportunity to develop a market for electronic toys and video games, product categories that competitors did not sell in Brazil at the time. The company stock is traded on the Bovespa.

Música sertaneja or sertanejo is a music style that had its origins in the countryside of Brazil in the 1920s. Its contemporary developments made it the most popular music style in 2000s and 2010s Brazil, particularly throughout the southern/southeastern and center-western countryside Brazil. Subgenres include sertanejo de raiz, sertanejo romântico, and sertanejo universitário.

1st Annual Latin Grammy Awards

The 1st Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Staples Center on Wednesday, September 13, 2000. The big winners were Luis Miguel, Santana and Maná with 3 awards; Juan Luis Guerra, Shakira, Fito Páez and Emilio Estefan Jr. received 2 awards each.

Playfish, currently a property of Electronic Arts, was a developer of free-to-play social network games. Playfish was founded in 2007 by Kristian Segerstråle, Sebastien de Halleux, Sami Lababidi and Shukri Shammas. It closed in 2013. Playfish in the past had attracted up to 55 million users a month, with over 37 million users coming from Facebook users. In October 2008, they secured US$17 million in venture capital funding from Accel Partners and Index Ventures.

Garena is a digital services company that engages in gaming, eSports, eCommerce and digital finance, primarily focusing on the South East Asian area. It was founded in Singapore in 2009, by current Chairman and Group CEO, Forrest Li. The parent company of Garena is Sea Limited, which was also formerly called Garena.

Brazilian Day

Brazilian Day is an annual festival which takes place in New York City (NYC) and other cities around the world. It is held near the beginning of September to celebrate Brazil's independence day celebrated today in the Federative Republic of Brazil on September 7th, 1822 - proclaimed by prince regent - heir to the Portuguese throne Dom Pedro I (1798-1834), from the previous United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, establishing the new Empire of Brazil (1822-1889) in South America. Brazilian Day is always on Sunday before the American Labor Day holiday weekend.

Mentez

Mentez is a Latin American-focused social network game publisher based in Miami.

Ai Se Eu Te Pego single

"Ai Se Eu Te Pego" is a 2008 Brazilian song by Sharon Acioly and Antônio Dyggs, with co-authorship by Aline da Fonseca, Amanda Teixeira and Karine Assis Vinagre and first interpreted by Os Meninos de Seu Zeh, directed by Dyggs himself.

Akamon Entertainment is a developer and operator of social network games focused on the Latin-American and South European markets. The company offers multi-platform, multiplayer casino and traditional games with via portals, Facebook and mobile devices.

Sorriso Maroto is a Brazilian pagode band originating from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was formed in 1997 by singer and tambourine player Cris Oliveira, and later headed by singer-songwriter Bruno Cardoso. They have released ten albums.

2016 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony

The closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Paralympics was held at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 18 September 2016.

The seventh season of The Voice Brasil, premiered on Rede Globo on July 17, 2018 in the 10:30 / 9:30 p.m. slot immediately following the primetime telenovela Segundo Sol.

References

  1. ↑ Geromel, Ricardo. "Top 10 Startups in Brazil".
  2. ↑ "BOOMING IN BUENOS AIRES: Take A Grand Tour Of $300 Million Social Gaming Startup, Vostu".
  3. ↑ "Zynga e Vostu entram em acordo sobre processos de direitos autorais". 6 December 2011.
  4. ↑ "Vostu nega demissão em massa".
  5. ↑ "Vostu tenta se refazer de processos e lança novos jogos - EXAME". exame.abril.com.br.
  6. ↑ Cutler, Kim-Mai (March 11, 2013). "More Layoffs And Downsizing At Vostu, South America's One-Time Frontrunner in Gaming". TechCrunch .
  7. ↑ "Guaraná Antarctica no game Café Mania do Orkut". www.proxxima.com.br. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  8. ↑ "AdeS cria ação no jogo social Café Mania". www.proxxima.com.br. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  9. ↑ Sá, Sylvia. "Decolar.com promove interatividade no MegaCity | EXAME.com" . Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  10. ↑ Sousa, Isa. "Walmart estreia loja virtual no jogo Megacity | EXAME.com" . Retrieved 2015-05-05.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.