If you're a gamer, you know just how viral online Flash can get. Because Flash files are as easy to copy as JPEGs or gifs, a popular game originating on one website can quickly end up on thousands -- and even more -- computers. But until Jameson Hsu and his Mochi Media team came along, there was really no way to track this movement.    

"The biggest problem we've been able to solve is to tell content developers -- primarily game developers -- where their game is being stolen from and posted to, who's playing it, where they're playing it, and whether they're playing it on their own computer or other websites," according to Hsu, Mochi's CEO and co-founder.

Mochi's free analytics tool, MochiBot, measures how viral a game gets but doesn't currently mine demographic data about the people playing the game. "But that's definitely an area of interest to us," Hsu said. "And definitely something that's often requested."

Still, tracking movement alone is extremely helpful to game developers. Through movement, they not only see which games are popular but also how the game is being played, which helps determine game trends and improve game quality -- quality Hsu has seen improve tremendously since Mochi started doing its thing.    

"People use it to track how far in a game they got," Hsu explained. "Did they get to level one or level 10? If they didn't get very far, then the game was probably too hard; if they made it all the way to the end, then it was probably too easy."

Named after the Japanese rice dessert Hsu was eating every day when the company formed, Mochi Media also offers MochiAds, "the world's largest online games advertising network for game developers, advertisers and publishers." This product, which is also free, uses similar technology as MochiBot, but the platform is able to serve ads into games. This is how the company generates revenue.

"We make money from advertisers in that they pay us to run their promotions in the games that are in our network -- the games from the developers we work with -- and they [developers] are providing us the space by utilizing our technology," Hsu said. "So whenever they use our MochiAds technology in their games, they're basically providing us with some billboard space to post an ad."

Mochi Media also works with developers to help them distribute their games because, in Hsu's words: "It's in the best interest of everyone. The more people who play the games, the better."

So, does Mochi ultimately plan on cutting out the middleman and developing its own games?

"That's one thing we'll never do," Hsu, who came from the game development side, said. "It's a very, very tough business -- a hits-based business. And you can't reliably make a hit every time. We try to mitigate that risk by spreading across thousands of games."

Sean Egen is a freelance writer.