While the giants of social networking battle for the attention of Internet users, the guys behind RockYou are happy to sit in the middle. They make their money shipping the tiny apps known as widgets that add value to the Web sites--and generate ad revenue for RockYou. "MySpace and Facebook are like my two divorced parents," says Shen, who launched the company with Tokuda in 2005. "And I am their child whose love they are trying to buy."
No wonder. RockYou today is the hottest widget factory on the Web. More than 35 million people in 200 countries have used its little programs, which rack up 180 million page views per day. What do RockYou's widgets do? The things people who populate MySpace and Facebook love to do, like post silly notes and videos on RockYou's Super-Wall, quiz each other with RockYou's Likeness's trivia questions, or test their astrological waters via RockYou's Horoscope. Look for the company's widgets to start showing up in your e-mail, your instant messages, and, perhaps by 2009, your cellphone.
Last updated December 27 2007: 9:36 AM ET
