Hovr is a new mobile gaming company that has capitalized on something that we haven’t really seen in the mobile space so far: ad-based gaming. With a new web portal that has been in a soft-beta since January, Hovr, without the help of advertising, has had over 200,000 downloads. That begs the question: “Why hasn’t someone done this before?”I sat down with John Sidline and Vipul Sawhney, President of Hovr, to discuss the merits of their ad-based system, where the money comes from and why people would want to use them instead of download games.
Why Free?
Vipul Sawhney: When we looked at the mobile market, especially the mobile gaming market, the research showed that when the average mobile subscriber was asked if they have played a mobile game or are interested in mobile gaming, 33% said they were. However, the research then showed that, month to month, only 2 to 3% of the average wireless carriers user base was downloading mobile games. The question that begs to be answered is that if 33% are playing mobile games and yet only 2 to 3% were downloading them, what’s the disparity? What we found was that the majority of people are playing the games that came with their phone, free games from their provider or, perhaps, just using Bluetooth to upload games to their handsets that they’ve downloaded.
JM: What did you guys do to get people to actually accept the advertising?
VP: When asked in polls, if users would accept ads on the phone, the reaction was always negative. People are afraid of telemarketing and spam. Would you be willing to accept unobtrusive, relevant advertising on your phone, and if you’re willing to view it, we would give you something for free, say a game? Most people said yes, we would do that. This has happened in every other medium. You have your premium content and your subsidized content. It’s all premium in mobile today. $2.99 to download a ring tone or $5 for a game, nothing is subsidized.
How the Money Works
VP: Our system, AdLogic, delivers all of the ads to the games. We have the API SDK that puts ads in-between levels, when the game starts and ends, really it just depends on what the publisher chooses to do. In terms of ad sales, we are working with advertisers and ad networks, and we’ll be announcing some of our major partners.
JM: John mentioned that you guys have already had a number of downloads since you started your soft-beta in early January. How much traffic have you had so far?
VP: We’ve been in a soft beta since the beginning of January, and without launching we’ve had almost 200,000 downloads from 105 different countries. So we’ve had some pretty decent traffic. We’re hoping to really scale that up after the launch.
John Sidline: That’s 200,000 downloads without publicity. That’s just word of mouth.
Reaching Out
VP: Of course we’ve done the initial PR, and also our site is more than just a place that you come to download and import games. We’ve built this site into a gaming community. When people come to the site they can create their own profiles, add friends and buddies, and, in a number of games, they can upload their scores to a high score system and compete with their friends or people around the world. You can compete against someone who’s playing a game in South Africa, India or Indonesia, and once your friend beats your score, you get a SMS and then you beat his score and he gets an SMS. It lends itself to self perpetuation.
JS: There’s some interesting stats coming from some of the developers that are working with Hovr. The developers are finding that the pick-up for games on the Hovr is faster than on the download sites. They’re finding a larger market. Some of them are moving 20 times faster.
JM: I guess that answers the question of how you get developers to use your system over others.
VP: Yeah. Just by making some of these games free, you get a 20 times higher download number. What we’ve done is changed the demographic of how developers get paid. Traditionally, developers get paid on a per download basis. If I’m interested in Tetris, I’ll purchase it for $6.99 from Verizon and EA won’t ever see another dime from me if I continue to play that game. What we have now, is that if your game is compelling, and is something people like, and has a lot of replay value, then you find yourself making more money per game. In the old model, you would only make money per download, but now you make money per ad impression. That can add up to more.
Looking Forward
VP: We’re looking to really expand the market via a platform that can REALLY deliver content to the masses. I mean, the carriers are selling 2 – 3% because people are scared to pay the money for a game that might not be any good. I think that, for one, we’ll be able to get people a lot of mobile games for free and two we believe we’ll help the premium downloads. If someone was reluctant to pay for content before or even try it, if they try it for free, they may like it and be willing to pay for a GameLoft game or EA game, so it helps out everyone in the whole value.
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2007\/02\/27\/hovr-to-bring-ad-based-gaming-to-cells\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_102655c34c8bda8a69fc61435463c46c","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}