Social Games: The Monetization Factor

Social Games: The Monetization Factor

By Amy Vale

When it comes to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, mobile traffic is growing by leaps and bounds. Recently, Facebook put out some big numbers indicating its mobile users jumped from 83 million in March 2012 to 102 million in June 2012. According to comScore, time spent on Facebook’s mobile site and apps per month (441 minutes) has finally surpassed usage of its classic website (3991 minutes) – for Americans who use both Facebook interfaces. When you look at these stats, the potential for gaming developers to generate revenue from apps on Facebook is tremendous. But not all social games monetize the same.

There are 3 R’s that gaming developers should keep in mind - Reach, Retention and Revenue. Each of these should be taken into serious consideration when developers are looking to monetize their social games.

Reach

How many people does your social game have the potential to reach across all channels, including gameplays, Facebook and Twitter? It’s millions and millions. And those millions will translate to a large amount of revenue, if your app strategy is executed well.

Retention

Once people download and play your game, are they coming back 10 times, 20 times and on a consistent basis? Are they inviting other friends on their social networks to play too? It’s not enough to get a user to your app; you have to create a rich, wholly immersive user experience that will make them return repeatedly, enjoy the experience and, best of all, encourage their fellow mobile-centric friends to download and play the game.

Revenue

What are you doing to generate revenue? In-app purchases in the form of virtual currency or tokens can be an effective way to generate revenue while still complementing the overall user experience. For example, tokens can be used as a form of reward or incentive to move to the next level of a game.