Mobile app store GetJar giving away premium games

In these early days of freemium economics, businesses are always looking for a new way to get their products in the hands of customers at no charge while still somehow magically turning a profit. Mobile App Store GetJar is trying yet another approach to crack this “profitability-through-free-content” strategy – and it’s one that will put premium paid games in the hands of consumers for free.

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In these early days of freemium economics, businesses are always looking for a new way to get their products in the hands of customers at no charge while still somehow magically turning a profit. Mobile App Store GetJar is trying yet another approach to crack this “profitability-through-free-content” strategy – and it’s one that will put premium paid games in the hands of consumers for free.

Partnering with Glu Mobile, GetJar is launching GetJar+ – a new program designed to provide mobile consumers with premium paid games for free. GetJar+ games will be identical to their paid counterparts, meaning no ad insertions, registrations, or any other catches. These games will be available for free to mobile users that visit the site during a limited two-week period.

So how can GetJar afford to give these away? Web-based advertising. The GetJar website gains its revenue from sponsored ads for specific apps, which they then use to purchase premium content from publishers which they can pass along to their users for free.

“This revolutionary new business model will fundamentally change the app industry economics and give consumers access to many more apps at a lower cost or in GetJar’s case – free,” said Ilja Laurs, founder and CEO for GetJar. “Everyone benefits — consumers can download all applications for free and get access to unique content regardless of the phone model they use, and now with GetJar+, millions of consumers get exclusive access to content that would normally require payment to download. Developers and publishers benefit by being paid for the licensing of their content on a global app store with huge scale. We’re thrilled that Glu is the first games publisher to realize the benefits of this new monetization model as well as the opportunity to reach consumers globally across more than 2,300 different handsets.”

Supported mobile platforms for the GetJar+ program include Android, Blackberry and Java. To learn more, visit GetJar.com.

Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.