To App or Not to App? Branded Apps Drive User Relationships
[Originally posted on ClickZ May 5th 2011]
Fifty percent of mobile phone owners in the United States will have a smartphone by the end of 2011, predicts Nielsen. A total of 63.2 million people in the United States owned smartphones during the three months ended December 31, 2010, up 60 percent compared to the same period in 2009, according to comScore.
There’s no avoiding it – apps and smartphones will affect how consumers connect to brands. And Facebook is a phenomenon onto its own.
“Mobile applications are the sure-fire way to extend a brand,” Rebecca Flavin, CEO of EffectiveUI, said in a statement. “It’s time for organizations to understand how to fully leverage the mobile channel and optimize a user-centered approach to drive adoption, as well as reinforce and drive brand loyalty.” Consumers expect brands to have apps to make interaction with the brand easier. According to a survey of 781 adults in the United States, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of EffectiveUI, found the vast majority (76 percent) of mobile app users thought that all brand name companies and organizations should have mobile apps to make shopping or interacting with them easier. Apps are an intimate way for brands to connect with consumers.
Where to Begin
According to the EffectiveUI survey, 38 percent of mobile application users said they were not satisfied with most of the apps available from their favorite brands; 69 percent said a brand name mobile app that isn’t useful, helpful, or easy to use results in a negative perception about the brand.
Here are some guidelines to ensure your branded app’s success:
Know your consumers. Your app should be fun but it must provide a utility to the consumer to be successful. What feature can you tie to your product that will solve a problem in the users’ lives? Analyze the users’ needs and motives for using your branded app, and develop an app accordingly. Weber, the manufacturer of gas and charcoal grills, understands that its users are passionate about barbecuing. It launched a successful app, Weber’s On The Grill, to provide recipes, steak timer, how to videos and shopping lists.
Keep it simple. Initially your app should focus on basics. One of the most successful branded apps is the Zippo Virtual Lighter with more than three million downloads. It offers users the ability to wave a virtual flame at concerts. Now available for Android.
Determine the platform. What devices do the majority of your consumers use? Although iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) have a head start, Android is growing quickly and is projected to penetrate the global market faster due to the openness of the platform. Low cost Android phones will be readily available on the global market. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of each platform and plan your functionalities accordingly. A smartphone app will not be successful if you just repurpose features from a website. Users of mobile apps are much more linear than website visitors who accustomed to drilling down.
Kraft was very successful with its app, iFoodAssistant, launched in 2008, available for Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad and RIM’s BlackBerry, providing users access to over 7,000 recipes. Kraft realized that the iPad could support more functionality and launched a new app, Big Fork Little Fork in July 2010, targeting parents in their 20s and 30s with children ages 6 through 12. It has a virtual library of 300 recipes, along with games, how-to videos, and other interactive elements that appeal to families interested in healthy eating.
Quick development tips. If it’s important to keep development costs low, consider using HTML5 as much as possible with native code, if necessary, only for key aspects of your app. For example, camera access and push notifications for iOS need to be written in native code. Rich (2D or 3D) animation is at least 1.5 years out for reasonable performance in HTML5. Developers should use native code for such apps or development tools like Unity. I have a strong preference for Unity on game apps because it will soon be supported on Facebook (without a plug-in) and is already supported on Android and iOS. Be cautious when interviewing developers who claim to be experts in Unity. Be sure to ask the developers to show you examples of their work.
Test. To avoid a bad brand experience, the app should be thoroughly tested. Some app developers release the app in a market like Canada first to garner user feedback to fix major bugs before launching the app is the U.S. market.
Market. With more than 370,000 apps in the App Store, you need a launch plan for your app. Tips on app discovery can be found in my column, “Top the iOS App Store Rankings by Getting All Your Ducks in a Row.” Like product launches, using advertising to increase installs is effective. Consider pay-per-install advertising so that you know the cost per install. Don’t forget the social element – make your app easy to refer to friends. Update your app frequently to keep it top of mind with users. (Disclosure: My company offers multiple distribution channels for app distribution.)
Measure. There are several metrics to measure important variables of app marketing.
- Discovery: Total downloads, e.g., how many installs did you get; app users, e.g., number of unique app users at a specific time such as daily active users; active user rate, e.g., the ratio of app users to the total number of downloads; app store rankings.
- Retention: Visit ratio frequency, e.g., the number of visits compared to the number of users over a period of time; depth of visit, e.g., number of screens viewed on average compared to the number of visits; duration, e.g., the average amount of time spent in the app; bounce rate, e.g., a ratio based on the number of user visits that had a single view event compared to the total number of visits.
- Lifetime value: The net present value of the cash flows attributed to a user. Very useful in media buys.
Whether the purpose of your branded app is to improve communication on the move, locate or research something on the move, or entertain, there must be value to people so as not to tarnish your brand image.
Do you have a tip about developing or marketing a branded app? Please leave your comments below.
Why Ad Bursts Work to Drive App Installs
[Originally posted on ClickZ April 7th 2011]
Not using advertising when launching an app in the App Store is like launching a website and not telling anyone the URL; your app never gets discovered. With more than 369,000 apps in the App Store and more than a thousand being submitted each month, advertising gets your app noticed.
In my February column, “How To Achieve A Top Chart Ranking In The Apple iOS App Store,” I scratched the surface on using burst campaigns to improve your ranking in the App Store. In this column, I am going to discuss key takeaways from using ad bursts to capture that elusive top ranking.
My company launched Dolphin Play on December 21, 2010. Dolphin Play was supported with three ad “burst” campaigns in its first 90 days, achieving a Top 25 Overall Free App Store ranking during each campaign with a 175 percent lift on average in organic installs over paid installs.
What is a burst campaign? Burst campaigns happen when an app developer concentrates their advertising spend over a short period of time to boost their app’s popularity.
Why use a burst campaign? In my company’s proprietary research of 458 consumers with smartphones, consumers indicated that the top three ways they discovered apps were: Top 25 Overall Chart (Free Apps or Paid Apps), Category Chart (like Games or Books), and New Featured. It pays to top the charts or get featured. If done right, a burst campaign results in a prominent ranking in the App Store, driving organic installs. As stated above, we saw a 175 percent lift for each paid install.
Here are some pitfalls to avoid when planning burst campaigns that we wish we knew before launching Dolphin Play.
Be sure all your ducks are in a row. Images and copy must be spot-on to increase conversions. Creating an app with strong, communicable benefits is important. Building an engaging app is paramount to retain the acquired user.
Focus on finding low-cost, high-volume, predictable install distribution sources. My company found that pay-per-install advertising was more predictable than display advertising, so it was easier to “burst” the campaign. It will take several campaigns to determine what media buys will result in profitable installs. We also found that incented sources were more affordable than non-incented sources of traffic.
Do not underspend. Organic installs optimize once you land a ranking in the top 50 of the app charts, so concentrate your largest spend during the first 24 hours. You can maintain this position with about half of the daily installs.
Be wary of increased costs during the holidays and other peak periods. With Dolphin Play, we wanted to capitalize on the holiday demand for apps. As consumers get new devices for holiday gifts as well as gift cards, they are naturally in the spending mood. We experienced an organic boost of 269 percent but the ad spend was much higher than anticipated. Although we were able to get increased installs, ad rates were higher and inventory more difficult to secure.
It can happen in reverse also. My company recently launched AppAllStar, a free game of the day deal service, receiving nearly 200,000 installs in four days. Part of this success was due to timing the launch with the beginning of the baseball season. Users could identify with the emotion tied to the word “all star” and the “quality” attached to it given the high level of interest in baseball during early spring. Make sure that you consider seasonal timing in the equation.
Using burst campaigns to get high App Store rankings works. It is a science to optimize the spend for the ultimate profit from your apps. Be sure to monitor your ROI and continue to apply your learnings to future campaigns. If you have any other tips on bursting your way to the top, please leave them below.
Get Top Ranking Apps with ASO
There’s a new term Internet marketers need to become familiar with: ASO, or App Store Optimization. As apps have ushered in a new era of business on the Web, ASO will soon take its place alongside SEO as a key component of online success.
Consumers are quickly realizing that apps are increasingly abundant, providing solutions to problems, and conveniences never before seen. But as the number of apps increases at a rapid pace consumers need a little help finding what they need. That’s where ASO steps in. And, just like SEO, ASO takes up-front planning to achieve top rankings in the app stores.
Five Steps to Increase Discovery of Your Mobile Game
With over 52,000 games available in the iOS App Store, and thousands of games also available for Android, gone are the days of smartphone gaming when simply building a game and getting App Store approval was enough to drive success. Now mobile game developers need to focus on identifying ways to increase the discovery of their mobile games to be successful. Follow these five steps, and you’ll increase your likelihood of developing a blockbuster game:
1) Create a Quality Game
Although every game developer starts out with the mission of creating a game that doesn’t suck, the reality is that most mobile games have minimal play value. How do you increase the probability of developing a quality game that consumers want to play?
One way you can lower your risk of creating a low quality game is to focus on proven game mechanics, but with a new environment. For example, Brian Robbins of Riptide Games first launched the iLookGood app in July, 2010. Based on the success of the iLookGood app, they released iLookFunny, iAmZombie, iLookGangsta, iArrPirate, iPrincess and iLookChristmas in the next five months.
Another way you lessen your risk is to be the first to bring a proven game concept from another platform to mobile. For example Veiled Games decided to launch the new freemium game Daybreak Heroes, which was partially inspired by the web game Kingdom of Loathing although metamorphosed during development.
In-App Purchases Driving Top Grossing Apps
[Originally posted on ClickZ March 1oth 2011]
Most of the top grossing apps in the iTunes App Store are now driving revenue with in-app purchases. Of the top 20 grossing game apps, 12 (60 percent) drive revenue with in-app purchases – nine (45 percent) of them are free apps with the only revenue source being in-app purchases; the others use a hybrid model (according to the iTunes Top Grossing App Chart, March 4, 2011)
What Are In-App Purchases?
In-app purchases allow consumers to purchase upgrades, more levels, virtual goods, or complementary features within the app – without going back to the App Store. By making the steps to purchase simpler and shorter, conversions increase along with sales. There are two scenarios: developers create a paid app and use in-app purchases for upgrades or additional content to enhance gameplay, or the app is free and all revenue is generated through in-app purchases. Either way, developers are seeing major increases in revenue. Another advantage of in-app purchases is that it keeps the file size of the app small so consumers have an easier time downloading the app.
In-app purchases allow the developer to monetize user engagement instead of monetizing downloads; a game-changing strategy for app developers. Ngmoco CEO Neil Young comments, “We made the shift to free-to-play games and that really made a huge difference to our business…from monetizing downloads to monetizing usage” (Ngmoco sold DeNA for $403 million). Purchases of virtual goods are projected to be $7.3 billion in 2011 and $14 billion by 2014.
How Is an In-App Purchase Made?
In-app purchases can only be made within the app. When a consumer makes an in-app purchase, she will see a dialog box with the item’s name and cost for the in-app purchase. The consumer taps “Buy” to proceed with the purchase and then enters her account and password.
Types of In-App Purchases
There are two types of in-app purchases. The first is straightforward: the consumer pays for the upgrade or content through an account set up in the App Store. Zynga took this model to the bank in its Facebook games, selling virtual goods and racking up revenue of approximately $850 million in 2010, generating about $400 million in profit. The second type of in-app purchases is rewarding users with virtual currency in exchange for relevant ad offers including free apps, online surveys, brand discounts, etc. In this example from the iOS game Dolphin Play, developed by Recharge Studios, a consumer can install free apps to earn the virtual currency needed to buy virtual goods that enhance their gameplay.
Key Things to Look for in an In-App Purchase Platform
Who are the existing users of the platform?
Does the platform give the user options for payment?
Does the platform include popular game titles and free games?
What are the integration requirements? Are they seamless with your application?
Are screens customizable to your app?
Does it offer the analytics needed to optimize users’ conversions?
Does it communicate to the user when a transaction is pending and completed?
Develop Apps for In-App Purchases
It is much easier to design the in-app purchase model into the game from the beginning. Here are some things to consider:
- Create meaningful context.
- “Prime the pump” – offer users free virtual currency up front.
- Create demand for premium content.
- Offer new content at a range of price points and urgency to buy.
- Make it easy to purchase; give the user options, but not too many options.
- Be careful not to give something away for free as in a promotion that you required other users to pay for – a surefire way to anger consumers.
- Be careful if your game is marketed to children. There is a set of guidelines that should be adhered to protect the best interest of children.
In-app purchases give players more choices – time vs. money, mundane vs. cool stuff, unlimited access vs. à la carte access, and limited play value vs. complex play value. It is all about giving consumers options so that every segment of the population can be a satisfied, paying customer. If you have additional tips about using in-app purchases, please leave your comments below.
How To Achieve A Top Chart Ranking In The Apple iOS App Store
[Originally posted on ClickZ February 1oth 2011]
The top ranking apps in the Apple iOS App Store get most of the traffic. It now takes more than 50,000 U.S. daily installs to get into the Top 25 Free Apps Overall ranking in the iOS App Store. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a valuable endeavor – and now there is App Store Optimization (ASO), which will prove to be just as valuable. Here are tips to get your app to the top of the chart rankings:
Advertising – Burst Campaigns
Plan burst advertising campaigns so that your traffic peaks in a short timeframe, which will jumpstart your App Store rankings and result in maximizing organic traffic to your app. Promotional campaigns of four consecutive days are more likely to have the biggest payoff. Weekends have higher traffic than weekdays in the App Store, so start your campaigns on Thursday so you get your top ranking at the start of the weekend for a natural 20 percent lift. One insider secret is that nearly every top ranking app in the App Store is using cost-per-install ad networks. Cost-per-install ad networks are the most cost-effective way to drive burst promotions for your app.
SEO
Do your research. What do the top 100 ranking apps in your category have in common? Try to identify what users are searching for and use those keywords when promoting your app, starting with the title and description – possibly even the developer name. Be careful not to use any special characters in your title as this will have a negative effect on how your name appears in the URL. Be sure to include “Free “or “Lite” if appropriate. Create quality images and label them with your keywords. Launch a website for your app and promote the app on social sites. Start networking with app review sites and other online communities like LinkedIn Groups (see comments below). The more places a consumer can find and read about your app, the better. Leverage your social network by integrating Facebook Connect into your app and request user ratings. Create a video featuring the “value” you are offering the user, post it on YouTube, and use the links in press releases and requests to app reviewers.
Carefully plan your iTunes Web preview. Again, use keywords, as these pages are indexed in the search engines and can provide valuable organic traffic as your app gains popularity. Many times the iTunes Web preview is listed higher than your app’s home page, as they are very search engine-friendly. The URL, page title, meta description, meta keywords, and the H1 tag should all be loaded with the app name/keywords. As app popularity grows, so will links to your preview page. Currently the iTunes preview page use a “no follow” attribute for links to the app’s home page, so there is no benefit to the developer. Another tip: mention a popular app that is related to the app for more SEO mojo.
Study direct marketers to improve your copywriting, as they are experts in creating calls to action that capture the user’s interest.
Promotion: Dropping the Price/Discounting
Take advice from the driver behind the successful Dr. Seuss apps, Michel Kripalani of Oceanhouse Media. He recommends discounting, but make sure it’s newsworthy enough to get media attention. He used a discounted $0.99 price point when the app was priced normally at $3.99 or 50 percent off for a discounted price of $1.99. Both were successful in driving installs and getting the media’s attention. The price needs to be “ridiculous enough” that people tell their friends. Listen to my interview with Michel for more details.
There are also app price trackers like AppShopper that identify when the price of an app drops. Users monitor and download apps from these price trackers, and they can give you a lift, especially in international markets.
PR
In line with what Michel mentioned above, you need to have a newsworthy story. Start by building a relationship with reporters and app review sites so that when your story is ready, they are a receptive audience. Start with developing a hit list of the sites/writers that are covering similar stories and then point out to the writer why your news adds value. Do the work for them providing copy, images, and video. The company I cofounded received 2.5 million impressions from media and social on the launch of our cost-per-install ad network using this strategy.
Cross-Promotion
Successful apps use cross-promotion to launch new apps. As you introduce new apps, launch by leveraging your existing apps popularity with an in-app promotion. Julian Farrior of Backflip Studios used his popular Paper Toss app to launch several apps including Ragdoll Blaster.
Luck and Trade Shows
There is a snowball effect once you have several apps in the App Store and become a recognized developer. Paul O’Connor of Appy Entertainment advises that Trucks and Skulls “roared out of the gate” due to Apple featuring the game in the very first week in iTunes. Paul advises to launch your app at key mobile events – like GDC Austin, timing the launch so that the app is available when the press hits. By getting media attention at the conference, your app could get the luck it needs to be featured in the App Store like Trucks and Skulls.
Planning and executing the launch of an app can catapult you to the top of the App Store rankings. Use SEO, advertising, promotion, PR, cross-promotion, and trade shows to your advantage, and with a whole lot of luck you can make it to the top. If you have any other tips to get to the top of the App Store, please add a comment.
Tech Entrepreneurs In Rural Markets Speak Out
Many of my closest friends in the Twin Cities metro tech community ask me for my perspective of what it is like to build a tech business in greater Minnesota.
Founding W3i eleven years ago in St. Cloud has certainly had its advantages and disadvantages. Rather than answering this question solely based on my experiences alone, I interviewed several other greater Minnesota tech entrepreneurs for their feedback on this subject.
With so much thoughtful input, I decided to answer this question in a three post series for TECHdotMN: the first post focuses on advantages, followed by the second post on disadvantages and the third and final focuses on how the Twin Cities tech community can support greater Minnesota tech hubs — and vice versa.
The Advantages of Starting & Growing in Greater Minnesota (Part 1 of 3)
The Disadvantages of Starting & Growing in Greater Minnesota (Part 2 of 3)
The Takeaways of Starting and Growing in Greater Minnesota (Part 3 of 3)
How Apps In Emerging Connected Devices Will Impact Marketing
[Originally posted on ClickZ January 13th 2011]
Everything is starting to get “connected” these days, from TVs to home appliances to car electronics to tables! The true benefit for marketers is solving problems for consumers through these new smart devices while promoting their brand. Last year, I covered “Five Application Marketing Trends,” and this year, my column will cover the latest developments in connected devices.
Connected TVs
Samsung created a software developer kit to allow third-party software programmers to create new apps for connected TVs – Internet-based apps that work seamlessly with Samsung’s TV or Blu-ray players. Early app partners include Blockbuster, Vudu, Travel Channel, and Netflix. Having launched the world’s first HDTV-based app store last year, it now has more than 200 TV apps and has installed more than 1 million apps.
Connected Kitchens
Kenmore recently announced that its appliances can modify energy use during peak-demand periods by communicating with local utilities. Other uses were remote diagnostics and touch screen controls. But it is more exciting to think about the opportunities for marketers. What if the touch screen now being embedded on a consumer’s refrigerator could showcase a grocery list app? The consumer could key in the products she needs to purchase, and the items could be synced to her mobile phone along with branded promotions for those items. The consumer could take the “app list” to her local grocer and purchase all the recommended items, connecting the marketer at point of “intent to buy.” Or take it one step further – what if the app could transmit to the grocer and everything on the “list” would be automatically replenished?
The food management ability of LG’s Thinq will track expiration dates so you know what to toss, and will allow you to check out what is inside the fridge from the store. What a safety feature for moms who don’t have the time to monitor food expiration dates or convenience to know what to buy when they are in the supermarket! What if the smart refrigerator could say what food should be eaten for a balanced diet? Or what a mom could cook for dinner with the ingredients at hand?
Connected Laundry Rooms
LG demonstrated its washing machine with Thinq technology allowing the user to select whether to do the laundry right now or let the machine decide what the most energy-efficient time was. What if an app could sense how dirty the clothes were, and only run the machine for the appropriate time to get them clean? Or could sense just how much laundry detergent or fabric softener was needed, and dispense the exact amount? What a cost savings that would be for the family. What a great branded app that would be for Tide.
Dryers can sense when clothes are dry, but what if there was an app that determined if there were items in the dryer that could get damaged – possibly sensing a code on the “care tag.”
Connected Cars
Ford has been showing off its new MyTouch technology, featuring apps in your dashboard. The new interface allows users to access smartphone apps through the voice command features of Sync, in-car software. Three apps are now available – Pandora for streaming music, Twitter to hear your tweets, and Stitcher, a news and audio service. The apps can be controlled through buttons on the dashboard.
Ford is also solving a problem with electric cars – determining whether you can reach your destination with the charge available in your car. An Android app, “My Ford Mobile,” can do this. Ford also showcased an app that it produced with Microsoft called “Value Charging,” which lets people in the U.S. know where to charge up their cars where electricity is the cheapest. Now the drivers can leave their car and stay connected through an app.
Now for the what-ifs. What if your car relayed its vital signs on an app so you knew just what maintenance needed to be done or when the air pump might be about to go out? And then Napa could promote its parts just in time. Now you’re getting it.
Viper has an iPhone Car Starter App where you can start your car, turn on the heat, unlock the doors and the trunk, and manage the alarm – all with your smartphone. The app is free but the device needed for your car installs is approximately $400. Living in Minnesota, this app would deliver major benefits in my life.
Connected Tables?
Samsung and Microsoft unveiled PixelSense technology in their Surface 2.0, which gives LCD panels the power to see without the use of cameras, making it possible for people to share, collaborate, and explore using a large, thin display that recognizes fingers, hands, and other objects placed on the screen. The Royal Bank of Canada is using Microsoft’s Surface technology in its banks. It sends out fliers to thousands of customers. When the user brings the flyer back into the bank, Surface recognizes the flier using vision-based interaction and can determine if that consumer wins, then demonstrating other applications available for its services. For example, the bank has an application that calculates saving rates for the customer. This application was showcased in Steve Ballmer’s keynote address at CES.
Summed up by Boo-Keun Yoon, president of Samsung’s visual display business and chief design officer, “…the long-lasting successes will be technology that makes us smarter and happier by using it, not the technology that requires us to be smarter to use it.” Do you have any problems that need to be solved using smart devices? If so, leave a comment.
Top 6 Predictions Impacting Apps in 2011
1) Apple Will Leapfrog Microsoft Yet Again by Using an App Store- Just like the iPhone App Store, the Mac App store will be a huge success. Apple’s January launch of the Mac App Store will be widely recognized as another Apple success, further causing market share shift away from Windows PC’s to Mac PC’s. Microsoft’s Windows 8, including its rumored Windows App Store, will not release until early 2012, and will be too late. Wake up Redmond, before Apple totally wipes you out of existence.
2) Hybrid Apps Featuring Native Clients with Web Functionality will Dominate Mobile- With all the hype about HTML5 apps stealing the limelight away from existing native mobile apps, 2011 will see a new movement prevail. In mobile, the majority of top apps will not move completely to the cloud as so many have prognosticated but instead will evolve into hybrid applications where native client software on the device will be coupled with web functionality. That’s right, I said it all you cloud fan boys!
3) Freemium Games Will Take Over the App Store- By the end of October 2010, 34 of the top 100 apps were free according to Gigaom. By the end of 2011, over 65 of the top 100 grossing apps in the iPhone App Store will rely on the freemium model. But it won’t be all peaches and crème for app developers trying to get in on the iOS freemium gold rush. The first half of 2011 will see freemium games being launched at a break neck pace. Other large studios will follow Sega’s Kingdom Conquest, Capcom’s Smurf’s Village and Glu’s Gun Brothers 2011’s launches with multiple freemium game launches of their own. This increased competition will cause the average cost of development for successful freemium games to go up considerably, as well as the cost for marketing, and result in only particularly innovative indie developers being able to compete. Distribution will be hard for freemium apps given the added competition, but even harder for paid apps given the abundance of quality freemium games.
4) Android App Developers Will Actually Start Making Money- It won’t happen until the second half of this year, but Android app developers will finally start making money. Google and its Android partners will finally make their billing process more frictionless, and the result will be app developers will finally start making money for the Android efforts. Unlike on the iOS, Android billing will first start to get to scale with freemium games and not with paid apps. Paid apps will continue to falter all year on Android.
5) Tablets will Garner Wide Spread Adoption in Developed Countries- The iPad will continue to sell like gangbusters, with a huge bump when the iPad 2 comes out. Not to be outdone, Android tablets will start catching up in monthly sales volumes of the iPad by the end of 2011.
6) Apps for TV’s will Not Take Wide Spread Form- The Apple TV and Google TV will not get to any kind of measurable market share during 2011, and as such, app developers will take a wait and see approach. As we end 2011, it will become increasingly clear how apps will evolve in the living room.
Bonus Prediction: Mobile Apps, Especially Games, Will Get More Social- Fueled by DeNA’s Mobigae launch and Facebook’s single sign on, mobile apps, especially games, will become much more social in 2011.
W3i Launches Recharge Studios Fund and ‘Dolphin Play’ Game
“W3i, one of the most successful Internet startups ever in the state of Minnesota, has launched Recharge Studios, which is both a mobile app launch fund for game developers and an app publishing business — and also the first product of that unit, a social game for the the Apple iOS platform called “Dolphin Play.” The announcement was recently covered by several sites, including Inside Social Games, 148Apps, and Pocket Gamer. (More below on what it all means for Minnesota developers, in the words of W3i’s Rob Weber.)
The St. Cloud, MN-based W3i, founded in the late 1990s by the three Weber brothers — Ryan, Rob, and Aaron (the latter has since left to launch another startup) — now has some 70 employees, boasts 33 consecutive quarters of profitability, and is on an annual revenue run-rate in excess of $30 million. CEO Andy Johnson added big-company experience when he joined the company a few years ago, having run the Internet business of Fingerhut, before that company was acquired in 1999 for $1.7 billion by Federated Department Stores. W3i’s business is all about helping app developers increase their user base — read: get more downloads. Until recently, that primarily meant Windows desktop apps (more than 400 million app installs to date). But, in the summer of 2010, W3i made a significant entry into the mobile app distribution business (iOS initially, natch) with the launch of its Apperang business. (Minnov8 coverage here.)”
[Originally posted on Minnov8 December 24th 2010]
