Social gaming seems to grow with each day that goes by, but some users have become wary of certain social media apps or games thanks to not-so-ethical offer-based scams. Offerpal Media has come under fire and both Zynga and Facebook are dealing with a class-action lawsuit. San Francisco-based gWallet, however, is looking to solve the image problem that has sprouted up around social media of late.
gWallet today announced that it's closed its first institutional funding round led by Adams Street Partners and Trinity Ventures, bringing its total funding to $12.5 million. The goal is to improve the social media ecosystem for both advertisers and consumers. "Unlike current incumbents in the virtual currency space, gWallet is introducing proprietary technology, strict ethical standards and the industry's first operating guidelines to better protect consumers and make this emerging media 'brand safe' for advertisers," the company said.
The statement continued, "The company works with brands directly as opposed to the current affiliate model, allowing for a single point of accountability. Its sophisticated technology platform ensures that developers generate the highest yield, marketers achieve their ROI goals, and consumers have the best experience. Perhaps most importantly, gWallet also offers a transparent platform so that developers and social media platforms can see at any time the exact offers being presented inside their ecosystem."
With more than 300 million users on Facebook alone, this could be a huge opportunity for brand marketers. "Companies like gWallet can be leaders in introducing brands and advertisers to this exploding universe of social games and social networks," commented Rich LeFurgy, founding chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau who is now an advisor to gWallet. "This new advertising space is going to offer exciting new opportunities for advertisers to get deep engagement with consumers."
"There's a huge global opportunity for a company like gWallet to be the White Knight in this space and put in place standards that work for marketers, publishers and consumers," added Robin Murray, Partner at Adams Street Partners, who also previously backed founder Gurbaksh Chahal as an investor in BlueLithium. "We know from experience that Gurbaksh is the kind of leader that can put standards in place that will create a hugely successful business in this exploding social media monetization category."
In addition to its effort to create standards for the social media space, gWallet said it will use the funding to open more offices in Europe. It's worth noting that Offerpal recently announced its own set of standards after it found itself embroiled in controversy.
