Tell us how AppWrapper automates the monetisation process and the technology that it encapsulates.
The AppWrapper™ simplifies the process of monetisation down to a single click. It is a zero coding approach to app monetisation. The developer does not need to waste time trying to integrate SDKs into the app. With the AppWrapper™, the developer just needs select his / her app, click the AppWrapper button and monetisation gets enabled on the app, all in less than 60 seconds.
The technology is a tremendous innovation in the app monetisation space that we have applied a patent for. It can enable both – premium advertising as well as micro transaction-based monetisation approaches in parallel.
Does your platform pose any technical restrictions and how it affects the overall application?
The platform poses no technical restrictions – any Android app (.apk), J2ME app (.jad / .jar), Windows Phone app (.xat) can be enabled for monetisation via the AppWrapper in one click. The app file size does not change significantly, nor is any of the app functionality changed. It works just as intended, with the additional benefit of monetisation via ads and micro transactions.
Your product supports a lot of platforms and even feature phones. How do you manage to cater to so many platforms at the same time?
One of the things we set out to achieve was to eliminate the pain points in a developer’s life. When we saw developers struggle and waste time while monetising their app – we challenged ourselves to create the world’s simplest app monetisation platform for our developer. We would not have completed our goal if it did not support key mass market mobile platforms. With the efforts of our passionate and innovative team we now support multiple platforms across smart and feature phones, and this list is constantly growing. Most other ad networks were not solving the monetisation challenge on feature phone apps, and we felt it was a need that had to be addressed.
What are the innovative pricing models that your platform provides and how do developers benefit from them?
The AppWrapper helps developers monetize using both, premium ads as well as micro transaction models. Using the combination of both the models we allow the developers to offer various pricing models to the end user such as pay per play, daily subscriptions, try & buy users. These pricing models are extremely suitable for the app economy and consumers in emerging markets.
[do action=”inside-quote”]Most other ad networks were not solving the monetisation challenge on feature phone apps, and we felt it was a need that had to be addressed.[/do]
Combining ads with micro transaction in-app purchases allows developers to maximise their earning from both audiences. Instead of trying to code all of this business logic themselves, developers can enable it in one click using the AppWrapper. Thus they get maximum income with minimum effort. We have seen amazing success stories and have highlighted some of them on “Developer of the Week” blog series.
What kind of analytics does your service provide?
Vserv.mobi provides excellent real-time web-based analytics. It allows app developers to understand various aspects of how their apps are being consumed and more importantly how much they are earning. Our web interface allows developers to see in real time the number of ad requests originating from the app, number of clicks on such ads, micro transactions completed, revenue earned, average app session time, what country is the app being used in, and much more.
Considering the lack of real estate on mobile devices, how can an advertisement platform provide value while not hindering user experience? How does your platform manage this challenge?
The mobile has very quickly become our primary screen. It’s now one of the best mediums for brands to engage with their consumers. But early on we did recognise the challenge of screen real estate, a challenge which we solved with the combination of our innovative AppWrapper™ & our premium full screen advertisements. The ads appear at the launch and exit of the mobile app, thus do not change the in-app user experience.
[do action=”inside-quote”]Our web interface allows developers to see in real time the number of ad requests originating from the app, number of clicks on such ads, micro transactions completed, revenue earned, average app session time, what country is the app being used in, and much more.[/do]
By showing ads at launch and exit if the app, it ensures that the ad is not competing with the app for attention and the brand message is experienced in a clutter free environment. Thus we solved this challenge by making it a win-win-win! i.e. advertisers gets premium space to show impactful ads, developer get a super simple yet powerful monetisation platform and consumers get free/low cost apps with great non-intrusive experience.
What are the features that differentiate you from your competitors?
Our philosophy has been maximum income at minimum effort. The AppWrapper has introduced unparalleled simplicity to the monetisation process for developers. No other ad network offers the same level of simplicity – all of them require developers to integrate complex SDK, recode etc and honestly that is just a waste of time and effort for developers. Secondly, given our experience & background, we are uniquely positioned to focus & solve the challenges in emerging markets. None of the other ad networks have solved the challenge of app monetization in the feature phones space. Thus, we are the only global mobile ad network that provides monetisation for both feature phone apps as well as smart phone apps. Thirdly, we are the only company in the world to combine ads with micro-transactions in parallel to maximise the revenue for developers. Hence, we are the only ones approaching the monetisation challenge from a comprehensive perspective.
How do you expect to see your growth in the future and what are the areas you are trying to improve upon?
We are growing at an incredible pace! In fact IDG Ventures named us as the ‘Fastest Growing Company’ in their portfolio, and we also are a winner of the Red Herring Top 100 Asia award. We are confident of sustaining this momentum as the app ecosystem is still very young and rapidly evolving. While we already are a global company in every sense of the term, this year our focus is on building out an “on ground presence” via local offices across our key emerging markets. Our aim is to become the #1 mobile ad network in emerging markets and cross the $100 million revenue mark by 2015.
What do you think about the app development and mobile advertising space in India as compared to the US?
In developed markets like USA, the mobile is an ‘additional’ third screen, where as in emerging markets like India it is the ‘primary’ / first screen. Users are experiencing the internet for the first time on mobile! This fundamental difference leads to a significantly unique usage behaviour. Further India is a very unique market for brands considering that there are more mobile phones in India than toothbrushes. Also, like most emerging markets, the mobile internet penetration in India has overtaken PC penetration. App developers from India have an opportunity and challenge of creating 100% mobile experiences.
Also while developers in developed markets may get away by focusing only on smart phones, the developers in emerging markets like India will have to create app for both feature phones and smart phones.
Similarly advertisers in emerging markets like will have to target mobile advertising on both feature phones as well as smart phones to reach the audience effectively.
With our unique AppWrapper technology we are helping on both objectives.
Within the past one year, the mobile industry has almost exploded. How have your relationships with developers changed in that regard? Also, what platforms are the most monetisable in your opinion?
We love the mobile ecosystem! One of the biggest pillars of this ecosystem are developers. With an increasing uptake of mobile internet and app consumption, the world is in the midst of a mobile revolution. However, the thriving app developer community in emerging markets are unable to maximise this opportunity due to lack of viable app monetisation models. We believe that our AppWrapper solution is well-suited to address this challenge with its simple One Click App Monetisation approach, across both micro transaction based paid models and premium advertising based monetization. Developers are seeing a tremendous value in our offering and reaching out to work with us. We too are helping highlight developer success with our Developer of the Week blog post series.
Given our experience in the space, we always recommend developers to create apps to address the largest part of the audience in their market. In emerging markets we recommend developers to focus their efforts on J2ME and Android as they provide the maximum coverage of the mobile audience & highest monetizations via our AppWrapper.
