Niantic, the company behind the famous Pokémon Go mobile game and its predecessor, Ingress, announced today that it has acquired the Evertoon startup team for the first time. 39, help develop mobile products. The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but in the way it is described, the move seems to be more of a buyout focused on access to talent, rather than on the intellectual property of # 39; Evertoon.
Launched last year, the Evertoon application was designed to help users make customized short films that can be shared with social networks such as YouTube and Twitter.
The application allowed users to upload a photo to use on a predefined avatar, which they could then program to do certain things by typing emoji commands. For example, typing an emoji with a thumb up, the avatar performs that action, while a punch gives a punch to the avatar. Users can also upload their own background photo and add their voices to the videos.
Evertoon was live for 18 months, and during this time, people used Evertoon to make animated fiction, satire celebrities and music videos, announced today the company in his ad. Development has taught them a lot about building a community and social experiences, he says.
The interest of Niantic for the application of toon manufacturing relates less to the technical mechanics of the creation of these mini-films, and more the engineering capabilities of the team, as well as their understanding of social systems.
"Niniane [Wang, founder of Evertoon] and his team explored innovative ways to add social mechanics to digital products as our products and platform evolve. will help build social systems that will benefit our entire community, "says Niantic in his article on the acquisition.
The Evertoon team will be responsible for adding a social platform to the Niantic games, including Pokémon Go, Ingress and its future titles.
Following its acquisition, Evertoon will close its iOS application.
The application will be disconnected on November 30, 2017, although users with version 3.0 of the application installed on their phone will still be able to make animation movies. However, the community component of the Evertoon product will be removed and older versions of the application will stop working by the deadline. If you want to save your previously created videos, you will need to download them to your device, depending on the company. (The Evertoon FAQ goes in more detail.)
Evertoon was still a small business with a handful of employees headed by its founder Niniane Wang. According to Crunchbase, the company had raised $ 1.7 million from investors such as Greylock Partners, Arena Ventures, CRCM Ventures, Amino Capital, Charlie Cheever, Alison Rosenthal, Ben Davenport, Ellen Pao and Lucy Zhang.
The full announcement, written by Niantic's CEO, John Hanke, is below:
Hello everyone,
The Niantic family is growing, and we could not be more than happy to host a large group of people who will help evolve, challenge and grow our business in new ways. Today, I am pleased to announce that we have acquired the Evertoon team, which brings with it a wealth of talent and experience in mobile products, tools and tools. for the creativity and construction of the community.
Niniane and her team are exploring innovative ways to add social mechanics to digital products. As our products and platform evolve, they will help build social systems that will benefit our community as a whole. We are also delighted to have Niniane's leadership in engineering and team management skills as our team grows.
jh