Monetizing Mobile

Maximising revenue through preloads

About Accumulate UK Ltd.

• Mobile service provider focused on retailing

• Core offering – Flexion - empowers retailers to generate more revenue from content and services

What is Flexion?

“Flexion gives the retailer full control of pricing, license and distribution models …”

…or to put it differently…

…the death of the one price fits all model…

Why use Flexion?

• The Gap...– 80%-100% of customers have at one time or another

played a mobile game but around only 5% buy.

• The Challenge...– How do we grow the market for mobile games and apps

without resorting to price and revenue reductions?

• The Solution...– Flexion bridges the gap

Setting the stage

• A large majority of customers in Asia use pre-pay

• Many of these have low credit

• Low credit is not just a result of “customers don’t have money”

So, the basic situation is thus something like…

• Many customers who want to use games or apps

• Many of these can’t do that, either because of …– A) data charges mean they can’t find or download

games or apps… or… – B) low credit means that many of the one’s that can

fail their purchases

Sound familiar?

• This is not an “Asian” problem

• It’s just the age-old problem of prepay

• Same patterns in any market with prepay customers

• So, the same problems as in e.g. the UK

• This means we can use the same solutions too

So, what do we do then?

• Option A: – Zero rate all data (not viable)– Charge peanuts for the content (not likely unless

you’re a philanthropist)

• Option B: – Take the market conditions as given– Find new ways of distributing and charging for your

content

The Flexion flavour to Option B:

• Preloading of full versions with in-/on-application billing

• Demos won’t really work…

… ease of purchase…

… the demo experience being sufficient…

… most importantly: demos don’t solve the two core problems

So, preloads it is then…• Yes, but without creating more work for the value chain

• Bespoke builds with in-app billing are tricky on account of…

– time to market, a device won’t wait

– bespoke development & testing

– not letting stakeholders play to their respective strengths• Should a publisher/content provider really also have to focus on billing?

• The obvious solution: use a content agnostic wrapper solution with billing out of the box (no surprises there…)

The story so far…

• Use preloads, try and buy and multiple pricing options to:

– Maximise distribution – games are available to any customer

– Maximise revenue – get more customers engaged and more of them spending

One more thing…

• Preloads need a device to sit on

• Preloads can end up on a device in four ways:1. Factory (OEM)

2. Factory (Operator variants)

3. Distributors (Flashing)

4. Virtual preload (e.g. SD card)

What about that “one thing”?

• A lot of the devices sold through operator channels are open market handsets

• The operator variant route, normally the simplest path, is not always open

• Getting games on to operator devices also means getting on board with OEMs

OEM preloads• Requires more from the solution

• OEMs build regional or even global variants

• “One file fits all”

• The preload solution thus needs to be able to handle:– Billing – Payment flows– Pricing– Rules and governance– Localisation

Isn’t the number of OEMs limited?

• “The old guard” OEMs: YES – in reality only a handful of players

• Regional/local OEMs: NO…

• 40+ and counting…

• Good device coverage in Asia means covering all OEMs, not just the “old guard”

In conclusion…

• If you want a profitable preload programme, then you need to…

1. Use a horizontal approach when working with OEMs on a global or regional level to maximise distribution

2. Use Try and Buy to maximise discovery and initial uptake

3. Use multiple pricing models to work around the issue of low credit customers and maximise penetration and revenue

What do you do as a content provider or publisher?

1. Don’t reinvent the wheel – the solutions already exist

2. Focus on your core business – keep creating quality products

3. Outsource the headache – work with leading enablers