Launched recently in July 2016, first in Australia, the United States and parts of Europe has become so popular that it's on the verge of overtaking Twitter in terms of daily active users on Android. It is nothing short of a new virtual cultural phenomenon.
It is rare mobile game app - Pokemon Go, where in the real world has become a place where the virtual world comes alive. So, a new monetization model has followed it fairly fast.
Gotta catchem'all- Ramping up the footfall with Pikachu
Big and small business have tapped in the developers to make money out of the wild wanderers. To take advantage of the Pokemon obsession, local businesses have already started to capitalize on the app's virility.
Some businesses like cafes, gyms and restaurants have started paying the app a $10 daily fee to purchases lures, or items that attract users, for their store to drive foot traffic. It has caused ambitious trainers to seek out their local pizzeria or coffee shop, many of which have been designated as Pokéstops where players can replenish on supplies, or as gyms, where they can train characters for battle.
Although it's clear that Pokemon Go is a bit of a phenomenon, with which tech companies stand to win or lose from the millions of dollars, there is also no doubt about the kind of craze it has generated among the world youth.
People are running around cities catching cartoons. Even though Pokemon Go is free to play, like most mobile games, it offers in-app purchases, which have already started to rake in money.
Some early revenue estimates:
* $1.6 million per day on iOS, on 2 million iOS downloads, according to estimates from app store optimization firm Sensor Tower.
* $14 million by Monday, working out to $2.3 million per day on iOS and Android combined, according to analysis from Superdata.
* Well over $1 million of net revenue" daily, according to app analytics firm App Annie, with a potential run rate of "$1 billion per year."
The title was jointly developed by Niantic, Pokemon Company and Nintendo. That money gets split among these interested parties wherein Apple or Google, reportedly take a 30% cut of in-app purchases as owners of their app respective stores and Nintendo takes in 10% of the stake.
By the Christmas fall, Nintendo expects to bring proven content, such as Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, which in turn can help Nintendo's distribute power and the proven content could lead to financial success. Plus, a fun, addictive game on Apple's platform can only help drive iPhone sales. Thanks to a few smart design decisions.
Pokemon Go has been working of the cut on the huge number of nostalgiac fans, it has become one of the most popular android application for mobile till date, with the number of active users crossing Twitter's mark.
How does it work?
Pokémon Go uses your phone's GPS and clock to detect where and when you are in the game and make Pokémon "appear" around you (on your phone screen) so you can go and catch them.
As you move around, different and more types of Pokémon will appear depending on where you are and what time it is. The idea is to encourage you to travel around the real world to catch Pokémon in the game.
This a creative combination of a game and the real world interacting is known as "augmented reality." If you count real-world incidents and the rise in Nintendo share values - all a result of the the game's release - it's been a success.
What is its Monetization model?
Pokémon Go is seeing: it's been downloaded a total of around 7.5 million times in the US From Google Play and the iOS App Store, according to their numbers. It has been raving the charts with more monetization than the expectation as users build their Pokémon inventory, spending money becomes needed to store, train, hatch and battle. The game works on a micro-transaction model.
It was observed that the purchases that were driven by a big number of spenders. This isn't usually the case for free-to-play games and apps that rely on micro transactions. For the most parts, games like Clash of Clans and the like, rely on big spenders - called "whales" - to offset the number of users who don't spend anything.
This is all part of Nintendo's plan to offer mobile experiences that take advantage of the capabilities of smart devices, without some of the more egregious monetization models out there.
BW Reporters
Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
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