Kids love to play games – especially social games. BUT… you gotta be on a social network to play them, and you gotta be at least 13 to join one of the networks like Facebook or Myspace. This means that 32 million U.S. kids are shut out from enjoying this highly popular form of entertainment. That’s just wrong!
At giantHello™ we believe that social gaming shouldn’t be off limits to kids under 13, rather it should be offered to them via a platform that is safe and appropriate!!! Addressing this growing need, we created social gaming network built especially for kids.
Parents, if you don’t want your kids on Facebook or Myspace – giantHello is the solution!
The giantHello™ website was designed for tweens (7 to 13 year-olds) who have outgrown the “kiddish” sites, but are not old enough to sign up for Facebook or MySpace. In addition to social games, the site”s many cool features include: friending, customizable profile pages, internal messaging, photo uploading, home page status updates, web based IM, award badges, and fan pages.
giantHello™ is staffed by many former social networking developers and Engineers. They have created a Facebook compatible API, which enables social game developers to effortlessly publish on the giantHello platform. Our users can now play many of the games that older family members are enjoying on the big league social networks. Every week we are adding more and more games.
Additionally, giantHello™ “Share” buttons are now starting to appear on many kids sites. These buttons enable kids to Like sites, particular content, and post regular updates to the their own feeds. Kids, like it because they can easily share cool stuff they’ve discovered on the web. Our partners like it because social recommendation is the best form of word of mouth marketing.
Online safety is of great concern to giantHello™, and every effort has gone into making the safe for kids to connect with their friends. If a child wants to add a friend all they need to do is send a special coded email or print an invite to hand deliver. Strangers are not able to contact kids on giantHello™ because the site does not allow random connections. Kids are only able to communicate with are their real friends: classmates, teammates, kids from camp, youth group and cousins – no strangers!
In the past, others have tried to create social educational sites or ones that were promoted as “parent” approved but kids greeted them like a bowl of tasteless spinach. giantHello™ has created an awesome site for kids that has the look and usability of a real social network, offers tons of games and doesn’t restrict their communications (no canned chat). giantHello™ complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and has been certified by the Children’s Advertising Review Board.
giantHello was created by parents who are concerned about how, when and where their kids spend time on the Internet. Our “tweenagers” have outgrown the traditional websites for children but aren’t yet ready for the full-fledged, open social networking experience. We created giantHello to address those needs. Our users were the “Chief Creative Officers and “Alpha” testers of this site. They told us what they liked, what they didn’t like, what worked and what didn’t work. We listened, and then we programmed.
We hope you enjoy the site and that it satisfies today’s parents’ privacy and safety concerns. We’re still tweaking and adding things, and would very much appreciate your feedback.
Kids if you are reading this, please visit the site regularly and often, but don’t let it interfere with your schoolwork. Most importantly, social networks should never take the place of real world friendships. Balance your time on the Internet with extracurricular activities like spending time with family and friends, sports and giving back to your community. When you do these things, you’ll find there’ll be lots more to chat about on giantHello.
To parents reading this, please review the special section that has been prepared for you in the Safety link. There are lots of great tips, tools and links on how to keep your users cybersafe wherever they are on the Internet.
giantHello™ is a registered trademark of Chipzco, Inc., a California corporation located in the United States of America.
Courts, also know as “Buz,” comes to giantHello from the other Los Angeles social network that was a “place for friends.” He's very accomplished at what he does, whatever that is he does. He also plays the ukulele over Skype, but is never sure if he has an audience or not.
Alexandra came to giantHello after having worked at Dreamworks Animation and family television. Working on children's entertainment has given her great insight in the minds of kids. She strives to ensure the site is safe and fun for all who use it. She enjoys hearing from our users, walks on the beach, and Neil Young.
Jon is the founder of Ocean Road Partners and a venture partner with Allegis Capital. He has been directing investments in southern California startup companies for 26 years. Mr. Funk's past investments include Sandpiper Networks, Rent.com, and Shopzilla. He has raised two children to college age who unfortunately missed the chance to have giantHello in their lives. He's also a pretty good surfer (water waves) and plays a mean electric guitar.
Quinn came to giantHello via ThisNext.com, a venture funded social shopping start-up based in Santa Monica. He was VP of Business Operations and wore many hats, including leading revenue, ops, and biz dev. Prior to ThisNext Quinn spent six years at Roll International: (Fiji Water, Teleflora, POM Wonderful Pomegranate juice) where he served first as Director of Operations and finally as Director of Marketing for Teleflora. He was also an early member of the DotTV team, an idealab company that eventually was sold to VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN). Quinn holds a BS degree from MIT. Everyone likes having him around because he is very smart.
Ivan brings more than 22 years of finance and operations management experience. His primary focus is working with early to late stage companies. His industry experience includes software, Internet services, online advertising, digital media, and telecommunications. His recent roles include being CFO of Weblistic, Yellowpages.com, and VP of Portfolio Operations with Platinum Equity, a global acquisition firm specializing in the operation of technology companies. Ivan has 3 children, one of which is an active giantHello user.
Lee is an attorney based out of Southern California and specializes in intellectual property issues and entertainment. He has worked with Muhammad Ali, Joe Namath, Sandy Koufax, Keyshawn Johnson and Shane Mosely. He also has experience in the collectibles industry, having been a former owner of a trading card company. His 11 year old daughter is an active mender of giantHello, and her dad is proud to be a part of a company that provides safer social networking.
Arun is a recent graduate from University of Southern California and has a passion for Web Development. He is excited to begin his career with giantHello. He thoroughly enjoys weaving code and managing systems. He is a fan of USC Football team and loves playing Volleyball and Cricket.
The Doc comes to GiantHello from Boulder, Colorado with years of experience at everything, except perhaps the thing he needs to know right now. Fortunately, he learns quickly, and even on those rare occasions when his heart is heavy, his code is light. Keith has a physics background, rides a bike a lot, and can occasionally be found recording YouTube videos in his living room.
Tony helps keep the technical wheels turning here at giantHello, and still gets his hands dirty in the code. Before giantHello, Tony was making the home page at MySpace way faster, enjoying startup life at TechStars, and running his own software development company. He's getting giantHello ready for when his son is old enough to use it.
Rodrigo also hails from Myspace. He is the driving force behind the look and feel of giantHello. He also loves the Chicken carbonara at Quiznos.
Andy and George met through their daughters, who were the inspiration for giantHello. After working for 25 years in design and manufacturing of consumer goods, Andy decided to partner up with George to create giantHello. With some guidance from his three daughters, Andy helped to make giantHello a fun and safer place to connect with friends.
George is an established family entertainment executive. Prior to starting giantHello he ran ZM Productions, a major independent production company which produced the motion picture Encino Man, numerous movies of the week for ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney and the Emmy Award winning Images of Life. George also co-created Martha Stewart Living and the Emmy winning documentary Hearts of Darkness. He has also held senior management positions with Walden Media and DreamWorks Animation. He credits his wife, Dana and four daughters, for inspiring him to create giantHello. George wishes he could go back in time and introduce all the kids he was friends with in New Jersey to giantHello; he'll need a time machine to do that and has asked Tony to design it.
giantHello 1607 Pontius Ave. Los Angeles, California 90025
