Tequila Mobile, developer and publisher of high quality mobile games, has seen downloads of its free mobile game Warships: Sea on Fire convert up to 15% of its users to paying customers, with 1.4 million downloaded games, during a recent campaign they ran using GetJar’s Pay-Per-Download service. This case study shows how the app’s unique business model proves there’s money to be made with “free” mobile games.
Tequila Mobile‘s model is based on offering full versions of their high quality, award-winning mobile games as a free download. Games have a proprietary in-app micropayment engine that allows players to purchase optional virtual items within the game (one-click purchase) and submit scores to online leader boards where players compete for titles and prizes.
To adopt a new business model, Tequila Mobile developed sophisticated platform that enables one-click micro-transactions inside any J2ME, Android or BlackBerry app. This fully managed solution supports 2000+ handsets and provides in-house managed mobile billing with more than 360 operators in 80 countries worldwide. Aside from enabling micro-transaction within the games and apps, the platform also allows Tequila Mobile to introduce extra social features and maintain active and direct communication with users playing their games.
Tequila Mobile quickly realized the opportunity with GetJar to obtain further visibility of its freemium games in a ubiquitous and cost effective manner using GetJar’s Pay Per Download (PPD) advertising solution. The company began a series of campaigns where they bid aggressively to promote their game on GetJar and boost downloads.
Warships: Sea on Fire, which is available on GetJar on Java,Android and BlackBerry phones, more subsequently doubled its downloads using GetJar’s Pay Per Download (PPD) solution over several months.
During this time, Tequila Mobile achieved over 1.4 million downloads on GetJar and plan to launch more freemium games in the coming weeks.
By using PPD, they are easily able to analyze what they earn per each processed transaction vs. the cost per download they bid to obtain more downloads on GetJar.
“By leveraging GetJar’s Pay-Per-Download (PPD) solution, we were able to increase the games’ visibility significantly which massively impacted our downloads and immediately boosted the volume of in-app micro-transactions we’ve processed” said Lukasz Deszczulka, EVP Marketing of Tequila Mobile.
Most importantly, by using GetJar, Tequila Mobile was able to avoid the prospect of an out-of-control marketing and promotion spends with no guaranteed results. At the height of the campaign 15% of all downloads from GetJar were converting to paying users.
“Discovery and monetization are key problems facing developers and publishers as apps continue to flood the space and we’re thrilled to see Tequila Mobile’s conversion rates on GetJar,” stated Patrick Mork, CMO of GetJar. “Tequila’s results are also a testament to something we’ve said for some time: you can make money off of free-to-download games.”
Tequila Mobile will soon launch a service for 3rd-party Developers enabling them to use Tequila’s proven platform for effective monetization of their apps, regardless of mobile platform they are developing on.
www.getjar.com
http://www.tequilamobile.com
