The mobile games industry is getting used to the average free-to-play game only converting 2-3% of its customers, but Amazon Developer Evangelist Mike Hines has a different figure in mind: 100%. How? Last year, Amazon announced Underground, a new app store for Android and FireOS with a new approach to monetization — premium apps are offered to users free of charge, and free-to-play apps are available with all content unlocked. Amazon instead pays developers for every minute every user is engaging with their app.
Mike explained some Amazon’s rationale behind Underground during his lecture at Casual Connect Tel Aviv 2015: “We would really like more developers to start businesses and submit their apps to our app store. And if we want them to do that, they’ve got to be able to stay in business.”
As for Amazon’s more direct benefits, the increased traffic Underground users bring to the company’s shopping app mean an increase in revenue.
The two-tenths of a cent per minute per user payment does mean developers make money on 100% of users, but it’s not necessarily the best option for every app maker. To help developers determine whether Underground is a good option, Amazon provides a revenue forecasting calculator.
In his session, Mike also described Merch by Amazon, a tool game makers can use to create branded content which Amazon will manufacture, sell and ship, sending royalties back to the creators. Due to unexpected high demand, the service moved to an invite-only system late last year.
To read more about Mike Hines, see this exclusive article.
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