Monetizing Applications on the Android platform

Monetizing apps on Android
CodeAndroidMeetup
31st October, 2009
Roy, VP Products
roy@tenCube.com | Twitter: @roy100

Pre-2008:
Sell it yourself
Handango
Telco
Manufacturer pre-bundle
Retail, resellers etc
Big problems:
Distribution
Payment experience
History of monetization

Distribution + payment experience
Proved market for apps
Golden price: $0.99
Top apps make > 1M/year
Started App Store mania
iPhone

How:
Charge for app
Freemium
Ad-supported
Where:
App Stores
Telco
Sell yourself etc
Making money

Android

Developers’ dream!
Über open
No app approval

Android projects increasing

14,500 apps, 36% paid
8,500 added in last 4 months
2000 apps have > 10k downloads (14.8%)
Est. total downloads 50M
81% of users have never bought an app
Est. developer revenue = 2.1M
Source: Androlib App Stats, AdMob, guesswork
Stats

Stats – A Comparison
Source: Wikipedia, Apple, AdMob, Canalys, Androlib and guesswork
These figure do not include advertising revenue
*Numbers in red are educated guesses

Daily revenue for 5th placed game
$62 – Android
$3500 – iPhone
Too few phones?
User behavior – are Android users cheap?
Google’s role
Paid apps launched later
Only few countries support paid apps
Free is good!
Monetization challenges

Panel discussion: What can we do to make money?