As it adapts to changes on Facebook’s platform, Offerpal Media has named Mihir Shah as its new chief executive and president.
Shah replaces George Garrick, who served as CEO since last fall. Garrick will become executive chairman. Garrick himself replaced Offerpal’s founding chief executive, Anu Shukla, in October, 2009. During his tenure, Garrick was trying to reposition Offerpal in the wake of a scandal over the legitimacy of the offer business.
Offerpal creates special promotions known as offers, which users can accept as an alternative form of payment in a social game. Instead of paying for virtual goods in a game with a credit card, users can sign up for an offer, such as buying flowers online or accepting a Netflix subscription. The business grew fast as social games took off on Facebook, but the whole offer industry was hurt last fall by a storm over offers that appeared to be scams, duping consumers with misleading or objectionable offers. And Offerpal was at the heart of that storm.
The Fremont, Calif.-based company moved to clean up its offers, setting new standards to lock out the scammers. It also hired Shah (pictured, right), the former vice president of ad networks at RockYou, as its chief revenue officer in December. He began streamlining the company and broadened its appeal to advertisers by moving beyond offers. Offerpal also bought mobile ad network firm Tapjoy in March.
In July, Offerpal laid off an unspecified number of staffers because it lost out to rival TrialPay in the race to provide alternative payments for Facebook’s new virtual currency system, Facebook Credits. That left Offerpal in a bad spot, since it was previously very dependent on Facebook revenue.
“I am honored to lead Offerpal during this exciting time,” said Shah. “The social and mobile gaming spaces are in a transitional and converging period right now, and we have some exciting ideas for using our extensive footprint and expertise to help game developers, social platforms and online advertisers navigate the changing environment. I look forward to working with the entire Offerpal and Tapjoy teams as we continue to find innovative ways to meet our customers’ evolving needs.”
Shah has also worked at QuinStreet as general manager of direct selling services.