Angry Birds developer Rovio has struck a carrier-billing deal with mobile operator Idea Cellular, allowing the users to make in-app purchases through their pre-paid or post-paid account.
India is a fast growing mobile games market but monetization is a problem within the apps mainly due to the low credit card penetration and low digital spends.
Rovio, chief commercial officer Alex Lambeek is currently in India and scouting for partners in apparel, gaming and toys businesses before the big Angry Birds Movie release in May next year.
“It’s hard to monetise a free game in a market where there is limited credit card usage. So, we have struck a carrier-billing deal with Idea,” Lambeek said. He further added India is an important market for Rovio having 7-8 million active Angry Birds users.
The deal with Idea is the first in the world that Rovio has cracked and will be applicable to in-app purchases (IAP) for Angry Birds Classic and its latest game Angry Birds 2.0. The two are also coming up with a co-branded portal wherein customers can download the game and use the service. The carrier billing is only limited to the portal and IAPs within Google Play Store and Apple App Store will have traditional payment method with cards.
Merchandising and Licensing is another segment where big chunk of revenue comes for Rovio. The company is now taking steps to clamp down and educating the employees at different countries to prevent fake merchandise.
The mobile gaming industry is huge and profitable but cruel too. The one hit wonders like King and Zynga are having a tough time with falling numbers. And the recent acquisition of Candy Crush-maker King Digital for $5.9 billion by Activision Blizzard came as a rude shock for the mobile game industry.
A detailed report on the above mentioned deal will follow soon. Stay tuned for updates