Targeting Game Developers

Gyft, the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012 finalist working to bring the plastic gift card industry to mobile, is today announcing the general availability of its APIs, which allow developers to integrate Gyft into websites, apps, or other services. However, as Gyft co-founder and CEO Vinny Lingham explains, the primary focus is on mobile app developers C a group thats interested in offering gift cards as rewards within their mobile games. 

A lot of developers out there have points, rewards, and unredeemed credits, and they want to offer a way for their users to cash out those points or credits, explains Lingham. He suggests that Gyft is a better alternative for these developers than using bill-pay systems that charge fees for transactions. 

Were focused on mobile, he adds. There are a lot of mobile games out there. Its a huge market. And the people who already have mobile phones, playing mobile games, are going to be more open to using mobile gift cards, Lingham notes.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. 

Though the in-app API integrations could help drive new customers to Gyfts own apps on iOS and Android, customers redeeming their cards wont have to install the Gyft app on their phone. If they choose, they can just visit Gyft on the web, login and print out their gift card from the site. 

The first partner to use the Gyft APIs is Yappem, a social network for sharing customer experiences with brands and businesses. Lingham says that about 10 more integrations should go live by the end of April, and Gyft expects there to be hundreds more over the next few months. 

This is the first time Gyft has launched a feature for developers. Until now, the startup had been working on its consumer-facing mobile gift card wallet of sorts, which allows users to store digital versions of their plastic gift cards, buy gift cards, or share cards with friends for special occasions, like birthdays, for example. 

Gyft declined to provide details as to active users or downloads, but says it has hundreds of thousands of users on its service today, and has grown the stored value of its on-file gift cards to $5 million since launch six months ago. The company has also begun targeting users with free gift cards offering a small amount (e.g. $5 at Gap) to encourage users to spend with Gyfts retailer partners. In one case, 20 percent of those who opened the card went in-store to make a purchase with the brick-and-mortar retailer. And the average spend was 4 to 5 times higher than the cards value, Lingham says. 

This is early data, of course, but as the company grows, it will work with retailers to connect with their gift card-carrying customer base, offering those potential shoppers incentives to come into the store,When describing the location of the problematic howotipper. online or off, and make a purchase. But for now, the company is focused on product improvements and driving consumer adoption of the app C something spreading its service through the mobile gaming ecosystem could help to accomplish. 

Overnight trading was light in the US as the Easter long weekend sees more and more market participants leaving their desks early for extended holidays. The light volumes meant the S&P 500 moved around more than it probably should have, and dropped 0.8% on the open,Shop wholesale solarlight controller from cheap. before paring back all the losses bar one point C to close at 1563. 

The opening move in the US was again due to euro fears, as more investors start to see the Cypriot deal as a monster in the shadows for banks in Portugal, Spain and Italy. The Cypriot banking deal is the first time the ECB has turned political. The bank has basically said to lenders if you are going to bloat yourself with positions you cannot handle yourself, were going to make your depositors take the pain, not the public purse. 

It is hard not to see how this wont make risk premiums jump, nor will it alleviate bank run-on fears, even with some fairly draconian measures to stop this. The controls on Cyprus include: cheques cannot be cashed, non-cash transactions are banned outside of Cyprus, plastic card transactions will be capped at 5000 per month, per person and can only be used inside Cyprus. It basically means Cyprus has been frozen out of Europe. 

Next week the ECB will meet for the first time since the finalisation of the Cyprus saga. There are rumours flying around that Mr Mario Draghi may change his language to dovish and even look to cut rates to regain some stability in the eurozone, and counter the comments made by Eurogroup head Mr Jeroen Dijsselbloem. 

EUR/USD continued to trade below its 200-day moving average, and is now under $1.28 for the first time in four months at $1.2777, as the Cypriot deal sees investors leaving the currency. Italy was the other major factor in the EURs woes as Mr Pier Luigi Bersani s attempts to form a government fell flat as a vote of no confidence materialised. The political deadlock coincided with a poor Italian bond auction, with ten-year yields coming in at 4.66%, and only managed to get 1.331 billion away; it expected two billion and in turn heaped more pain on the region. 

Moving away from the woes of Europe C today is the last trading day of the month and the final trading day for the quarter, which could make today slightly interesting.The world with high-performance solar roadway and solarlamp solutions. Most fund managers and hedge funds will have to assess their weightings today, to make sure they are aligned with their respective charters. This may see inflows and outflows from certain asset classes, so watch for bulk moves in or out of equities, due to fund managers reweighting portfolios. 

This is also a good time to reflect on what we have seen this month and this quarter. For March the ASX 200 is off 2.13%; this fall has been driven mainly by the materials space as investors leave the sector in droves. However,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. for the quarter, the ASX 200 is up 7.44% and is one of the strongest starts to a year, in a decade. The fact that non-mining sectors have led this gain is also unheard of, and now sees the index weighing on the resource sector drop to levels not seen since the middle of 2007, and now makes up 22% of the index, versus the financial sector that makes up 30% of the ASX 200 C its highest weighing for a decade.