Tag: mobile app

The company behind the wildly popular and addictive mobile apps is seeking to raise $500 million.

The mobile app development company behind Candy Crush Saga, King, has made technology news headlines as it is to raise at least $500 million in an initial public offering.

The British computer games company has said that its most popular mobile app generated 78 percent of its Q4 revenues.

This, and a number of other statistics were also released in this latest mobile technology news, including that approximately 93 million people play the Candy Crush Saga app every day. This, according to the documents that King filed with the United States SEC. That application is, by far, its biggest hit and its popularity continues to grow.

The technology news continued as the company revealed that the game brought in $1.9 billion last year.

According to King, this is a massive increase over the tremendous earnings it was already generating through the Candy Crush Saga in 2011, which were “only” $64 million. All of these figures were included in the pre-IPO documents submitted by the company.

At the same time, though, King still found itself in a pre-tax loss of $698,000 in 2011. The company managed to turn that around quite dramatically in 2013, showing a $714.3 million profit. The company is registered in Ireland and has its headquarters in London, but has filed to float under the ticker “King”, on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the United States.

Now the company must face its next challenge, which will be to win over investors and build their confidence after the mobile gaming sector has performed quite poorly and unexpectedly in the past. Many will surely be worried that they will only find themselves burned once again by the hype of this technology news and the opportunity that King appears to be presenting.

The first case that typically comes to mind was that of Farmville on Facebook. It was created by the mobile app development company, Zynga, a major competitor of King. It drew a tremendous user base and created a great deal of excitement before its 2011 floatation, after which it rapidly plummeted to about one third of its IPO price, as the company scrambled to try to come up with another equivalent success.

The HBC Department Store Group has launched new stronger shopping apps for its brands.

Among the latest announcements from the HBC Department Store Group is that it has now launched a new iOS mobile commerce app for both its Lord & Taylor and Hudson’s Bay retail stores.

The application has been designed to span the gap between traditional media and online shopping.

To achieve the mobile app development, HBC has been working with Pounce, a consumer facing mobile commerce application that brings together traditional media with the smartphone and tablet channel. This gives customers the ability to use their mobile devices to purchase merchandise that they have seen in print media such as flyers or catalogs. Pounce remains the only app with approval from Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor which gives customers the ability to shop directly from what they are seeing in print.

This mobile commerce app gives consumers the chance to use their devices to scan images in print media.

The m-shopping app was launched in Canada immediately ahead of the start of the Winter Olympic Games, this year. The timing was deliberate as the Hudson’s Bay is the official apparel sponsor of the Paralympic and Olympic teams that Canada is sending to compete in the Sochi 2014 games. The print ads that the retailer issues just ahead of – and during – the games will be the first that will display the Pounce shopping opportunity for consumers.

Outside of Canada, the smartphone shopping app will also be launched in the United States for Lord & Taylor.

According to Michael Crotty, the HBC chief marketing officer, the purpose of this new effort is to be able to embrace the latest popular technology and combine it with traditional media. He explained that “Pounce creates the opportunity to combine offline and online channels in a seamless way. He also pointed out that the unique capability of the app provides a natural fit with the brand as they expand their omni-channel strategy. It provides not only the opportunity to continue with traditional marketing and to appeal to users of mobile devices, but also the chance to bring them together.