First of all, it’s called JIF but whether or not you agree with the pronunciation is irrelevant because its neurologically stimulating effect on the human mood is universal! We all love watching those endless loops of epic LOLs which are sometimes astonishing, sometimes absurd and sometimes even objectionable (ahem Tumblr and 4chan!) but mostly good clean fun. My respect to those who edit and create their own, but the beauty of GIFs is in its sharing and collective ROLFing. With that in mind, YIX wants to raise the happiness of the planet by letting you play with friends over GIFs! It is like the popular game Cards Against Humanity but with GIFs. And it is the first one of its kind, so listen up!
A group of friends wanted to create something fun that allowed people to be expressive using animated GIFs. They explored various ideas but it was on January 3rd, 2014 when they realized they wanted to make a game out of it and call it “YIX”, which doesn’t stand for anything outside of it being a fun word to say! The team consists of (don’t forget to click their names!) co-founder Jostin Darlington, CEO Jenny Diggles, VP of Technology Jeremy Olmsted-Thompson, Director of Marketing Benjamin Diggles, Director of Content Tiffany Southworth, and Director of Project Management Jasenka Gracic. They are fun alright!
Fun and games aside, like every startup that we cover on Startup Dope, the fun sixsome (yes, it’s a word!) had to bruise their entrepreneur knuckles, says Benjamin,”We have the best damn game on the planet but it has been hard getting the press to pay attention! Without money it is pretty tough to get someone to pay attention. Despite the fact we are continually voted at the top for our category and we continually get 5 star reviews.” Theirs is a frustration that many other startups can relate to.
More than just being a fun game, it also helps people find GIFs. “Our solution delivers a rich set of GIFs to the user so they don’t have to look around and with this comes an easy path to self expression”, says Benjamin. Users can save their favorite GIFs for future plays in slots. The game comes with 7 free slots and then it is $0.99 through in-app purchase to unlock 7 more. On plans for the platform, Benjamin says, “We’ve built an ad platform and we have already been approached by brands and agencies to put promotional GIFs in the game. We think this is the next frontier of native mobile advertising.” The company maintains high standards for promoted GIFs, giving main priority to user engagement.
The app is meant for anyone who doesn’t get nauseated looking at GIFs but for statistics‘ sake, they have set the optimum age demographic median at 17-28 years! Get the game now!