For RockYou, the new partnership means that hi5’s 63 million users will be able to access its gaming products. As one of the major application developers, RockYou has been among the first to create game apps for most of the major platforms, from Facebook to MySpace. So it’s no surprise to see RockYou reaching further with the new partnership with hi5.

What’s notable about this particular partnership between hi5 and RockYou, however, is the monetization capabilities that will be available to both companies as a result. RockYou will exclusively accept hi5 Coins, the virtual currency launched by the social network earlier this year, for payments of the hi5 version of the Pets game. This marks the first time a major social networking site has opened up its payments platform to a large app developer, though this isn’t the first time hi5 has teamed with a game developer for the expansion of its game section. Mochi Media also has games on hi5, and take advantage of hi5 Coins.

Such a payment platform cooperative really grows the potential for both hi5 and RockYou, as the app developer is better able to generate revenue directly from users on hi5’s social network and rely a little less on advertising or other monetization methods. The addition of RockYou to its virtual goods platform in such an integrated manner means that hi5 can further establish itself as a leader in this particular area.

While Facebook and MySpace are looking to virtual goods as alternatives to advertising revenue, hi5 has been rather aggressive in the past few months with its virtual goods initative. The key for hi5 has really been setting up the virtual currency, and creating a marketplace around it. The growth of the marketplace ultimately relies on the end users, but these users will certainly be further enticed with integrated payment options for content that wouldn’t otherwise be available directly through hi5.

It will be interesting to see this trend flourish in the coming year or so, as I think the marketplace approach has a great deal of potential for both developers and platform providers. What do you think of such cooperative projects for establishing a virtual goods marketplace?

Doggyspace.com is a cross between MySpace and YouTube for the simple reason that it allows members to do their social networking activities by creating profiles, sharing photos and uploading videos of their dogs and puppies.

Of course all other social networking sites, Doggyspace aims to connect like-minded people. When we say like-minded people, we mean dog-loving kind.

Doggyspace offers free standard membership but there are plans to offer premium accounts with extra features for a minimal fee. If you are a dog lover, you wouldn’t mind spending extra dough since it will go to an animal charity anyway.

Doggyspace is your typical social networking site where you can share stories about dogs, learn about specific dog breeds and even help you and your fellow dog lovers establish friendship based on something that you both love – dogs. You can even find other dog owners who will be willing to set up a play date for your dogs.

If you’re ready to join Doggyspace, don’t be surprise to find profiles of dogs instead of people. Doggyspace is a social networking site for dogs and their owners after all, right?