• by Laurie Petersen , March 27, 2007

KickApps Corp. today announced the launch of the 2.0 version of its hosted platform designed to quickly and easily add social media experiences to any Web site.

The platform provides sites of all sizes with a range of building blocks that include user-generated content, social networking, video players, Web cam applications, widget-building, media/member management, and reporting.

Corporate users and Web masters can mix and match building blocks from the widget library to crate a more customized or branded solution.

"Viral widget syndication is as powerful or more powerful than natural search," said KickApps CEO Alex Baum, a former president of JumpTV, who previously spent eight years in a senior programming role at America Online.

The New York-based company's tools have powered a successful Procter & Gamble Tag Body Spray community effort. Within six weeks of launch, it drove 772,400 page views and 260,000 unique visitors, according to KickApps.

My43.net used the tools to raise monthly site traffic by 30% with no on-air promotion. Other companies using it include AFL Network, Cycling.tv, and National Lampoon, Universal Music/Interscope and others. Many of the 600+ sites carrying its intuitive tools are self-powered.

"With this latest release of our platform, we continue to broaden an already robust set of building blocks necessary to transform existing destinations into live community-oriented open portals," Baum said.

KickApps is also serving targeted ads to relevant audience clusters, allowing for the monetization of sites.

KickApps is backed by Spark Capital and Prism VentureWorks. Its board members include former Liberty Digital and E! Entertainment CEO Jarl Mohn and former MTV and NFL President Sara Levinson.