RockYou
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Social media applications, video games |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | Lance Tokuda, Jia Shen |
| Headquarters | San Francisco , United States |
| Products | Social media widgets, social games, classic video game titles |
RockYou operated as a company focused on creating social media widgets and applications tailored for platforms such as MySpace and Facebook. After 2014, the company shifted its strategy toward acquiring rights to classic video games, incorporating advertising within these games, and redistributing the titles.
History
Established in 2005 in San Francisco by entrepreneurs Lance Tokuda and Jia Shen, RockYou began by producing slideshow widgets before expanding its offerings to include voicemail services, text and photo customization tools, as well as social gaming products. By December 2007, it had become the leading provider of Facebook widget installations.
RockYou took part in Facebook’s 2007 F8 conference, where it developed widely used applications including Super Wall, Hug Me, and Vampires. Despite early achievements, the firm encountered a major data security incident in December 2009 that compromised more than 32 million user accounts due to inadequate security measures. This breach damaged its reputation and resulted in legal repercussions.
In 2010, the company experienced significant workforce reductions, and founder Lance Tokuda resigned as CEO, with Lisa Marino taking over the role in 2011. That year marked RockYou’s acquisition of game development studios TirNua and Playdemic, broadening its portfolio in social gaming. Additionally, it secured development partnerships with John Romero’s Loot Drop studio. Playdemic’s Gourmet Ranch earned industry acclaim through a Mochi Award nomination.
RockYou attracted funding from investors such as SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Partech International, and DCM. In response to lawsuits arising from the data breach, the company consented to undergo independent security audits in 2011 and resolved Federal Trade Commission charges in 2012 by paying a $250,000 fine for privacy violations.
After acquiring Bingo game developer Ryzing in 2012, RockYou moved its headquarters to San Francisco. That same year, it released The Walking Dead Social Game and continued expanding by purchasing three Playdom games from Disney in 2014 while licensing further titles from Digital Chocolate.
In the following years, RockYou obtained several games from Kabam in 2015—including The Godfather: Five Families—and acquired titles from GREE in 2016 such as War of Nations. Despite these efforts aimed at business expansion, RockYou faced ongoing financial difficulties.
By early 2019, RockYou unexpectedly discontinued its PurePlay Poker game and subsequently announced the closure of The Godfather: Five Families with little advance warning. On February 13, 2019, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in New York, effectively ending its operations.
Data breach
In December 2009, RockYou experienced a significant data breach that exposed over 32 million user accounts. The company had stored user information—including passwords for both RockYou accounts and linked partner services like Facebook and Myspace—in an unencrypted database. Passwords were also transmitted via unencrypted email during account recovery processes, and password creation was restricted by disallowing special characters. The breach exploited a longstanding SQL vulnerability nearly ten years old. Notifications to affected users were delayed and initially downplayed the extent of the compromise, which ultimately impacted every user account.
Since 2013, the leaked password database has been publicly accessible and is frequently utilized in dictionary attacks, posing ongoing challenges to cybersecurity efforts.
Social applications and games
- Army Assault
- Bakery Rush
- Bingo Blast
- Celebration Cards
- Brightwood Quests
- Urban Girl Lifestyle
- Penguin Frenzy Battles
- Atlantis Dragons
- Edge Realm
- Fashion Stylist
- Time Gardens
- Gold Expedition
- Roman Glory
- Heroic Realm
- Zodiac Forecasts
- Embrace Me
- Jackpot Bingo Games
- Kahzuu Slot Machines
- Camelot Kingdoms
- Kitchen Chaos
- Lucky Slot Machines
- Shopping Mall World
- Millionaire Metropolis
- Movie Frenzy
- My Casino Games
- New Territories
- Flair Fragments
- Pioneer Quests
- PurePlay Poker Room
- Fast Poker
- RockYou Live Events
- RockYou Poker Room
- Skull Isle
- Solitaire 3 Competition
- Solitaire Tournament
- Rapid Racing
- Super Pets Adventures
- The Godfather: Five Families Game
- The Walking Dead Social Experience
- Toyland Adventures
- Volcano Isle
- Nations at War
- Words of Enchantment
- Zoo World (Original and Sequel)
- Zombie Alley