The TechVibes take: from atoms to bits

Our BC Export Award was noticed by the good folks at TechVibes, who wrote an interesting piece on the significance of our victory. To quote,

what’s interesting about this award is that not only a gaming company but one firmly grounded in social networking is being recognized by one of the oldest “brick and mortar” awards in the province. Just a few years ago, it would have been quite a task to convince established players that internet companies actually produced anything tangible (and indeed, at the time very few did). But with the economy increasingly moving from atoms to bits, “virtual” companies like Backstage will continue to garner awards previously reserved for their offline brethren.

Read more: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/backstage-technologies-takes-bc-export-award#ixzz0VvovAIeB

Backstage Technologies Wins BC Export Award

Victoria, BC–October 30, 2009 - As the first social gaming company ever to win a BC Export Award, Backstage Technologies continues to pave the way in social gaming by building the most engaging games in the space. Pull Tabs™, Scratch & Win™, Slots™, Mind Games™, and Bingo Explosion™ have entertained millions of social networkers worldwide.

The BC Export Awards annually seeks out British Columbia’s Top 25 Exporters and honours them for their excellence and achievement in nine categories, including seven directed at firms and two at individuals. The ceremony is co-hosted by the Government of British Columbia and the BC Division of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. It is the oldest awards ceremony of its kind in Canada.

“We are very honoured to win such a prestigious award,” said Russell Ovans, CEO of Backstage Technologies, who were announced as the winners in the category of New Media and Entertainment in a ceremony held in Vancouver. “We shared the stage with some of the most innovative companies in British Columbia and are thrilled with this achievement.”

About Backstage Technologies

Backstage Technologies has blazed a distinctive trail in helping to build and establish the burgeoning social gaming industry by conceiving, creating and distributing best-of-breed casual games for social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and hi5. Backstage are pioneers in the monetization of social games through the sale of virtual goods.

Backstage is a finalist for a 2009 BC Export Award

Earlier this year the accounting firm KPMG nominated Backstage for a BC Export Award. We are thrilled to announce that we are a finalist in the category of New Media and Entertainment.

The BC Export Awards annually seeks out British Columbia's Top 25 Exporters and honours them for their excellence and achievement in nine categories, including seven directed at firms and two at individuals. The ceremony is co-hosted by the Government of British Columbia and the BC Division of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters and is the oldest awards ceremony of its kind in Canada.

The winners will be announced at the BC Export Awards on October 30th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver. We're up against the evil Vancouver Film School (Kevin Smith's alma mater), and Arcana Studio, who seem to do cool stuff involving comic books. We're definitely in the sexiest category. Who will win: social gaming juggernaut, renowned film school, or comic book artisans? Stay tuned.

Backstage games raise over $100,000 for charity

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA — March 23, 2009 — Backstage Technologies Incorporated (“Backstage”) is pleased to announce they have raised over $100,000 for charity in less than a year through their Facebook games.

In September, 2007 Backstage developed a clever and addictive virtual scratch card application for Facebook called Scratch and Win.  The first fundraising campaign commenced in April of 2008. Each day over 250,000 Facebook users immerse themselves in the Backstage suite of applications, of which to date over 12,300 unique players have supported Backstage fundraising initiatives through the purchase of special charity Scratch and Win tickets.  

The unique power in this fundraising concept is the ability for charities to connect with willing donors at very small donation levels.  As one game player and donor commented, “I’m glad to have been able to contribute to this special charity. It may have only been five dollars, but five dollars is all I could give.”

Totals to date:

• The Land Conservancy of BC: $10,521
• BC SPCA: $11,285
• The BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities: $9,587
• Doctors Without Borders: $14,032
• Prostate Cancer Research Foundation: $6,444
• Mustard Seed Food Bank (Victoria): $7,800
• The Salvation Army (Victoria): $13,159
• The Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon: $11,592
• The Australian Red Cross (Bushfire Relief): $8,460
• The Linus Foundation: $9,684 (ongoing)

Grand Total: $102,564

The success of the Scratch and Win game led Backstage to develop several others, all based on a virtual prize collecting model.  These games are free to play, however to raise money for charity, Backstage sells special game tickets dedicated to a charitable cause at $0.10 a piece.  Tickets are purchased using the Spare Change payment platform, which is designed to facilitate convenient micro transaction purchases on social networks. These tickets are associated with uniquely themed virtual prize sets that can only be won through the purchase of these tickets. A new charity is chosen each month – sometimes based on the preference of the players through elections held within the applications.

About Backstage Technologies
Backstage is a Canadian software company that creates highly engaging casual games for social networks.  Backstage was the VIATEeC 2008 Emerging Technology Company of the Year.  For more information, visit www.bstage.ca.

Contact Information
Backstage Technologies
Marc Dugas (mdugas@bstage.ca)
VP of Business Development
1-250-384-2048

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Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Our apps now have RSS feeds for system notices

Never miss an important system notice again: point your favourite RSS reader at the following feeds to stay in the loop and receive updates on our Facebook apps as they happen.

Scratch and Win: scratchit.bstage.ca/scratchit/index.rss
Pull Tabs: scratchit.bstage.ca/pulltabs/index.rss
Mind Games: scratchit.bstage.ca/mindgames/index.rss

Right now the stories are sorted by oldest to newest, but we'll be fixing that early next week.

Systems notices are the events that we post to the Game History on the Play page. These notices often announce important upcoming changes or new content.

I'm subscribing using Basil, the free RSS reader plug-in for Yahoo Messenger.

Friendster, anyone?

We are pleased to announce that Scratch and Win and Pull Tabs are now on the social networking website Friendster!

Before you groan and say "Friendster is so over" don't be so quick to count out the former recipient of Time Magazine's 50 Coolest Websites of 2004 award. Friendster is aggressively seeking (and gaining) patent protection for some of its social networking innovations. And with a new boss and new venture capital, it could be poised to take a run at the likes of MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo.

Interestingly, almost all Internet users in the Philippines have a Friendster account. In other words, Facebook is to Canada as Friendster is to the Philippines.

Here is what Friendster has to say about itself.

With more than 95 million members worldwide, Friendster is a leading global online social network. Friendster is focused on helping people stay in touch with friends and discover new people and things that are important to them. Online adults, 18 and up, choose Friendster to connect with friends, family, school, social groups, activities and interests. Friendster prides itself in delivering an easy-to-use, friendly and interactive environment where users can easily connect with anyone around the world via www.friendster.com and m.friendster.com from any Internet-ready mobile device. Friendster has a growing portfolio of patents granted to the company on social networking, with more expected over the next several months.

Backstage Raises Over $13,000 for the Salvation Army!

Backstage Technologies today announced that its successful Facebook “Scratch and Win” charity campaign has resulted in a donation of $13,159.24 to the Victoria Salvation Army.  These funds will be used to help local families in need of short term, emergency assistance.  This latest results brings our total charitable donations to over $60,000 since May 2008!

“Our major annual fundraiser, the Christmas Kettle Appeal, did falter this year because of the bad winter weather Victoria had. This generous donation from Backstage Technologies has put us well over our goal, we are very grateful,” said Megan Ponsford, Community Relations Coordinator of the Salvation Army.

“With the world economy faltering and charitable donations ebbing, it’s more important than ever that we think about those less fortunate than we are” said Dr. Russell Ovans, president of Backstage Technologies.  “Our Facebook players have been fantastic and have again stepped up to the plate through donating by gaming.”

Scratch and Win is a Facebook application that lets players enjoy playing free virtual scratch-off lottery tickets.  Winning tickets award players tokens rather than dollars, which they use to purchase virtual prize sets as they advance through the game.  To raise money for charity, Backstage sold a special Salvation Army ticket at ten cents a piece with a Christmas themed prize set.  The unique power in this new fundraising concept is the ability for charities to connect with willing donors at very small levels.  This simple concept has put over $60,000 into the pockets of needy charities around the world.

This is the sixth charity that Backstage has assisted since last May. Notable partners have included, Doctors Without Borders, The Land Conservancy of BC, The BC SPCA, and the BC Lions Society/Easter Seals Society.

Marc (Backstage Bus. Mgr), Megan, Juan, and Russ (Backstage CEO)

Backstage Technologies raises over $9,500 for the BC Lions Society

Backstage Technologies today announced that its successful “Scratch and Win” charity campaign has resulted in a donation of $9,587.08 to the BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities.  These funds will be used to help provide children with disabilities experience a week long camping adventure at no cost to their parents or guardians.

Lions Club CEO Stephen Miller was emphatic in his praise for both the generosity of Backstage and the power of fundraising through Facebook. “Wow! I am a believer in Backstage and the power it has within the virtual world. You guys are awesome to deal with and we are truly honoured to have worked with you. You’ve really made a big difference in the lives of hundreds of children with disabilities.” 

“As a father of three children, the BC Lions Society Send a Kid to camp campaign is something that really hits close to home,” said Dr. Russell Ovans, president of Backstage Technologies. “I can only imagine the difficulties parents face raising a child with special challenges. This was an easy campaign to get behind.” 

Scratch and Win is a Facebook application that lets players enjoy playing free virtual scratch-off lottery tickets. Winning tickets award players tokens which they use to purchase themed virtual prize sets as they advance through the game. To raise money for charity, Backstage sold a special BC Lions Society ticket at ten cents a piece with winning virtual prizes being artwork made by children who had attended past Lions Society camping adventures. The unique power in this new fundraising concept is the ability for charities to connect with willing donors at very small levels. As one game player and donor commented, “I’m glad to have been able to contribute to this special charity. It may have only been five dollars, but five dollars is all I could give.” This simple concept has put over $40,000 into the pockets of needy charities across this country.  

This is the third charity in as many months that Backstage has assisted. Notable partners include The Land Conservancy of BC, The BC SPCA and the BC Lions Club. Backstage is currently partnering with Doctors Without Borders to raise money and awareness for the plight of refugees around the world.

Scratch and Donate

We have great news! The special "TLC" ticket in Scratch and Win helped us raise over $10,000 for the The Land Conservancy of British Columbia. Keep reading for the official press release or check it out on Marketwire.

Backstage Technologies today announced that its successful "Scratch and Win" charity campaign has resulted in a $10,520.73 boon to The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC).

"I want to thank Backstage for involving TLC in its first Scratch and Win program for charitable work," says Bill Turner, Executive Director of TLC. "The results have been fantastic."

Scratch and Win is a Facebook application that lets users interactively enjoy playing free virtual scratch-off lottery tickets. For TLC, Backstage created a special "purchase only" ticket. In just one month Facebook users purchased over 127,000 TLC themed tickets at 10 cents each.

"Our games of chance typically involve collecting, competition, and entertainment, resulting in an experience that is as fun as it is addictive," says Dr. Russell Ovans, president of Backstage Technologies. "In eight months, 740,000 people worldwide have added our applications and over 135,000 of these are daily users. We've recognized an incredible opportunity to harness the power of online social networking and we are delighted to pass on our good fortune by raising awareness about worthy charities such as TLC."

"I can't express how excited we all are to be part of this online community and how Backstage's ideas have involved so many more people in our work. This program has opened our eyes to the many social marketing options available and the positive outcomes that can be achieved," says Turner.

With the success of the TLC charity campaign, Backstage have now decided to release a new charity ticket each month. The next beneficiary of the power of social networking will be the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

Backstage Launches "Scratch and Win" Lottery Game

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA - September 22, 2007 - Backstage Technologies today announced the release of "Scratch and Win," the first scratch-off lottery ticket application built on Facebook Platform®, a platform that enables software developers to build applications for the Facebook website.

Scratch and Win lets Facebook users interactively enjoy playing scratch-off lottery tickets. Users receive a daily allotment of 10 free, animated tickets that look just like real scratch-offs. Ticket prizes have no monetary value, but instead are redeemed for collectible images that users can display on their Facebook profile. Scratch and Win utilizes the social graph of friends made available through Facebook Platform to allow users to send each other tickets as gifts, and compare their luck at winning.

"As more of our clients inquire about the feasibility of building a Facebook application to support their e-businesses, we have made the conscious decision to become proficient in Facebook Platform," explains Dr. Russell Ovans, president of Backstage Technologies. "For our first foray, we decided to build something that embodies what we see as three key ingredients of a successful Facebook application: competition, collecting, and entertainment."

With over 43 million active users, Facebook is the sixth most trafficked website in the United States, while, according to alexa.com, it is the most trafficked website in Canada. Facebook recently launched Facebook Platform, which enables companies and software developers to integrate with the social utility website.

Backstage Technologies (www.bstage.ca) is a software engineering start-up that specializes in custom enterprise web application development, search engine technologies, systems software, intelligent agents, and relational database design.