wattpad androidto 2011 - android and monetization

Unlimited Stories

Android and MonetizationAllen Lau

wattpad.com/allenlau@allenlau

social + mobile + eReading = new form of entertainment

WHO IS THIS GUY?


WHO IS THIS GUY?• CEO and Co-founder, Wattpad

– Community of readers and writers to discover and share stories– Wattpadders were spending 2 billion minutes on Wattpad in Q3

2011, most of them coming from mobile– Investors include Union Square Ventures, Golden Venture Partners,

W Media Ventures

• CEO and Co-founder, FeedM8– Mobile advertising company, sold to Upstream Systems

• CTO and Co-founder, Tira Wireless– VC backed mobile content publishing and deployment company


CURRENT MARKET


• Number of apps = 500,000+• Number of downloads per month = 1 billion+• % of paid apps = 66%• Payout to developers = $3 billion

CURRENT MARKET

• Number of apps = 500,000+• Number of downloads per month = 1 billion+• % of FREE apps = 66%• Payout to developers = 2% of iOS (2010)

Google is downright “not happy” about the purchases of paid apps– Eric Chu, Group Manager Android

Platform Manager, Jan 2011


WHY?


• Openness encourages– Free apps– Copyright infringing content– Spam

• Billing methods– Google Checkout vs iTunes– Billing reliability

WHY?


IT’S GETTING BETTER!


IT’S GETTING BETTER!• Mobile advertising is becoming a viable option• In-app purchase– Very important when competing with LOTS of free apps

• Operators Billing– AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint– Vodafone UK, Vodafone Germany– NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, SoftBank, SKT

• 3rd Party payment provider– Urban Airship, Zong, Boku, Payfone


PREREQUISITE


PREREQUISITE• Great product• Lots of users

– It is a volume game– Don’t build apps for small niches (app for Mongolian food lover living in PEI

won’t work)– Some exceptions (more on this later)

• Build a business, not an app– Apps can be commoditized really quickly


ADVERTSING


ADVERTISING• eCPMs can be a few times HIGHER than iOS

– Mostly CPC ads– CPM ads are few and far between

• Advertising is a (high) volume game– eCPM is a step function of traffic

• Using multiple ad networks and mediation are VERY important• Geography matters

– Ad network is a local business

• Other ad formats– Video and other intrusive ads generate higher CPMs – Don’t sacrifice your UX


PAID APP/IN-APP PURCHASE


PAID APP/IN-APP PURCHASE• Paid app

– Hard to make it work when there are so many free apps and a suboptimal payment system

• In-app (freemium) is the preferable model– At least you are on equal ground with all the free apps!– Treat “free” as your marketing expenses– As long as you have enough “mium” to convince users to pay up

• Small niches, business apps, where price sensitivity is not an issue, is also a possibility


DO I NEED TO MAKE MONEY?


DO I NEED TO MAKE MONEY?• Remember - build a business, not an app• Can Android be your loss leader and make money elsewhere?

– Especially true for network effect based business


ONE THING TO REMEMBER


ONE THING TO REMEMBER• Traction is king• Engagement matters• When you have a billion users, you have a million ways to

make money• When you have no user, you have no way to make

money


Thank Youp.s. we are hiring ;-)

Allen Lau, CEO and co-founder

Suite 801-B4950 Yonge Street

Toronto ON M2N 6K1

wattpad.com/allenlau@allenlau

[email protected]

wattpad androidto 2011 - android and monetization

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