Thor Fridriksson

Þorsteinn Baldur Friðriksson[1] (born 30 June 1979), commonly anglicised as Thor Fridriksson, is an Icelandic businessman. He was the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Plain Vanilla Games, a Reykjavík-based video game developer, until its defunction in August 2016.[2]

This is an Icelandic name. The last name is patronymic, not a family name; this person is referred to by the given name Þorsteinn.
Thor Fridriksson
Born
Þorsteinn Baldur Friðriksson

(1979-06-30) June 30, 1979
Reykjavík, Iceland
NationalityIcelandic
Alma materUniversity of Oxford (MBA, 2009)
Known forPlain Vanilla Games

Personal life

Thor was born in Reykjavík on 30 June 1979. He graduated from the Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík in 1999 and studied at Reykjavik University.[3][4]

Career

Thor was working with the broadband-ISP startup Hive until it was purchased by Vodafone in 2007.[5] Deciding to explore a different industry, Thor became a local TV news reporter.[2][5] After studying at the University of Oxford, Thor started Plain Vanilla Games in Reykjavík during the Icelandic financial crisis.[6] Thor and his team at Plain Vanilla Games spent over a year developing an educational app for children called The Moogies,[5] that failed to gain popularity on the App Store.[7] Despite the country's economic issues, Thor decided to keep the Plain Vanilla Games' headquarters located in Reykjavík to help support job growth and other start-up companies.[6]

In June 2020, Thor released a new game titled Trivia Royale that "lets users compete in a 1,000-person, single-elimination trivia tournament."[8]

References
  1. Bogadóttir, Þórunn Elísabet (31 August 2016). "Plain Vanilla lokað á Íslandi – öllum starfsmönnum sagt upp". Kjarninn. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  2. Kolodny, Lora (27 December 2013). "QuizUp Takes Over Where Trivial Pursuit Left Off — The Mobile Generation". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  3. "Metnaður til að skara fram úr" [Ambition to excel]. Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 2 May 2003. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  4. Griffith, Erin (6 March 2014). "How hit trivia app QuizUp survived the hype cycle". Fortune. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  5. Lumb, David (28 February 2014). "How The Creator Of QuizUp Turned A String Of Foolish Moves Into A 10 Million-User App". Fast Company. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  6. Gottlieb, Jenna (6 March 2014). "Startup's success with QuizUp app a bright spot for Iceland's economy". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  7. Roof, Katie (6 March 2014). "QuizUp Debuts On Android; How An Icelandic Game Became An Overnight Success". Forbes. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  8. "How Thor Fridriksson's 'Trivia Royale' earned 2.5M downloads in 3 weeks". TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 July 2020.


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