When Apple dropped the hammer on incentivized installs back in April, most folks had believed that would sound the death knell for then-thriving companies built around the pay-per-install business model. Instead it forced them to get creative. Take Tapjoy for instance. Back in June, they launched a $5 million fund to help iOS developers make the jump to Android – a platform where incentivized installs are still fair game. Now, only two months later, they’ve announced new partnerships that bring the total number of apps using their monetization services to more than 10,000.
When Apple dropped the hammer on incentivized installs back in April, most folks had believed that would sound the death knell for then-thriving companies built around the pay-per-install business model. Instead it forced them to get creative. Take Tapjoy for instance. Back in June, they launched a $5 million fund to help iOS developers make the jump to Android – a platform where incentivized installs are still fair game. Now, only two months later, they’ve announced new partnerships that bring the total number of apps using their monetization services to more than 10,000.
Of course not all of those 10,000 are utilizing incentivized installs. Tapjoy offers numerous ways for free games to profit – from banner ads and videos to freemium monetization. This means they still have one foot in iOS monetization, too.
“Free-to-play titles are driving user experience and engagement in mobile, and we are honored to partner with so many of the best and fastest growing developers leading this charge,” said Mihir Shah, president and CEO of Tapjoy. “Our developers tell us that nearly one-third of their total revenue comes from our platform, which speaks to the tremendous consumer demand for easy-to-use and 100% trustworthy alternative payment options like ours.”
The latest companies to sign up include OMGPOP (Puppy World), Moblyng, Craneballs Studios (SuperRope, MonoRace), Game Circus (Coin Dozer, Prize Claw), and Spry Fox. And while each of them are benefiting from revenue generation through TapJoy, some are just as happy spending those earnings to advertise their own games through the service;
“We recently released Puppy World on iOS, and we’re working with Tapjoy’s ad platform to execute on our go-to-market strategy,” says OMGPOP’s Wilson Kriegel. “As we expand to Android, the breadth of big-brand ads Tapjoy makes available, combined with their innovative ad units, scale, and overall business model is certainly going to provide us with the tools we need to achieve great success there as well.”
For a company that many had thought dead in the water after Apple pulled the plug on incentivized installs, Tapjoy has shown a tremendous amount of resiliency. Not only have they bounced back, but they’ve done so with some pretty notable developer partnerships. With more and more games going freemium, figuring out how to make free games profitable is going to be the next big challenge the industry faces -and Tapjoy seems poised to set themselves up as an early leader in that field.
