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PlayPhone picks up Red Herring Top 100 Americas award nomination

Mobile social venture praised for innovation

PlayPhone picks up Red Herring Top 100 Americas award nomination
Mobile social outfit PlayPhone has been selected as a finalist for 2012's Red Herring Top 100 Americas award, which looks to honour the most prominent technology ventures across the region.

According to Red Herring publisher and chairman Alex Vieux, PlayPhone has showed "great promise" over the course of the last 12 months.

It's a period that has seen the company expand in terms of the platforms it supports, as well as the acquisition of marketing firm Social Hour.

Quality and quantity

"It is an honour for PlayPhone to be selected as a finalist for the 2012 Red Herring Top 100 Americas Award, particularly within the competitive mobile category," added PlayPhone founder and CEO Ron Czerny.

"We have spent a significant portion of the last two years revamping our business to take advantage of the burgeoning social games market on smartphones and tablets.

"Red Herring’s acknowledgement of our accomplishments is extremely gratifying to all of us at PlayPhone."

Finalists have been evaluated both in terms of quantitative data – financial performance of particular interest – as well as more qualitative measures, such as technology innovation, quality of management, and execution of strategy.

Social surge

PlayPhone has faced increasingly competition to its operations in the social field – which span iOS, Android, Windows Phone and HTML5 – especially from Asian firms in recent months, most notably in the form of GREE and DeNA.

Nonetheless, back in February, the company claimed to have more than 35 million registered users on board.

Finalists will present their winning strategies at the Red Herring Americas Forum in Santa Monica between 21-23 May.

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.