日前，手机应用商店运营商GetJar宣布了一项震动整个手机游戏产业的决定，将推出成千上万款免费手机游戏的促销活动。

GetJar

这一计划无疑将重创那些准备高价出手应用的公司，不过GetJar也并不做赔本生意，它会让用户先免费试玩这些游戏然后再付费，创造更大的营收。

GetJar位于美国加州圣马特奥市，拥有号称仅次于苹果App Store的全球第二大手机应用商店，手机游戏和其他应用是其主要运营产品。因为与Glu Mobile的合作伙伴关系，GetJar将推出一个为期两周的试点项目，用户通过GetJar网站即可免费体验一系列的Glu游戏。

GetJar首席市场营销官帕特里克·莫克（Patrick Mork）表示，“我们预期发放上万款游戏，这么做的目的是开拓市场。”

GetJar的免费计划中还包括一些高端的游戏，不过这些游戏并非新产品。这些游戏没有植入广告、注册程序或其他额外要求，该促销活动将持续两周。GetJar应用商店目前共有7万款应用，在200多个国家和地区中已有超过10亿的下载量；每月有2300部手机从中下载应用，下载量达1亿次。

莫克表示，GetJar的产业规模可支持这种免费促销活动，就好像电视节目与电影院表演相比，几乎就是免费。GetJar的营收并不需要依赖应用销售，而是从赞助商入手。不少赞助商往往会掏钱让自己的应用摆在Getjar网站最显眼的位置，然后GetJar就可以利用这笔钱从发行商中买进高级游戏，免费提供给用户。

这种新型运营模式目前还处于摸索阶段，如果真的奏效，用户就可以免费体验甚至是比较高端的手机游戏应用。Glu公司的EMEA（欧洲、中东、非洲地区）和亚太地区总经理奥利维尔·伯纳德（Olivier Bernard）表示，这项政策将让Glu获得更多渴望体验游戏但又不舍得为高端游戏付费的玩家。

据悉，这些免费游戏将出现在GetJar网站的“推荐游戏”版块，主要面向Android、黑莓、Java平台的手机用户。这些促销免费游戏包括《头脑风暴2》（Brain Genius 2），《孤岛余生：时间之谜》（Stranded: Mysteries of Time），《地产大亨》（Build-a-lot ）以及《超级房车赛：起点》（Race Driver：Grid）。假如这个促销手段果然管用，GetJar将每隔两周或数周免费推出新款游戏。

莫克表示，GetJar有可能在免费游戏、交叉促销付费应用中植入广告，但目前的免费促销试验暂不会采取这种行动；GetJar的首要目标之一是将其应用商店打造成应用最容易露脸的平台。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

GetJar to give mobile games away to millions of users for free

Mobile app store operator GetJar plans to shake up the mobile game industry by giving away millions of copies of mobile games for free.

That’s going to make it tough on companies that are trying to sell high-quality mobile games, but it will also give GetJar a shot at higher revenue by encouraging players to sample free games and then buy later.

San Mateo, Calif.-based GetJar runs what it calls the world’s second largest app store, after Apple’s App Store. It sells games and other apps for its mainstay business. But in a partnership with Glu Mobile, GetJar will provide consumers with a number of Glu games for free in a two-week pilot program at GetJar.com.

“We anticipate we’ll give away a couple of million games or so,” said Patrick Mork, chief marketing officer of GetJar. “What we’re trying to do is widen the market.”

Under the GetJar+ program, the company is giving away premium games, though they aren’t brand new titles. The games will have no ads, registrations, or any other catches. The promotion will last for two weeks. GetJar’s app store has had more than 1 billion downloads in 200 countries. It generates nearly 100 million downloads a month across 2,300 handsets. The GetJar store has 70,000 apps.

Mork said in an interview that GetJar’s scale allows it to do the free promotion, much like TV shows are free in comparison to movie theater shows. GetJar doesn’t need to rely on the revenue from the sale of its apps; rather, it generates revenue from sponsors who want their apps placed on the best spots on the site. GetJar can then use that money to buy a premium game from a publisher and distribute it to consumers for free.

The new business model is being tested. But if it works, then users could get access to many more apps for free, even if those apps are high-end games by mobile standards, Mork said. Olivier Bernard, managing director of Glu EMEA and APAC, said the deal will let Glu reach many game-hungry consumers who might not otherwise buy premium games.

The games will be in GetJar.com’s “recommended” section, available on the Android, BlackBerry and Java phone platforms. The free games include Brain Genius 2, Stranded: Mysteries of Time,Build-a-lot and Race Driver Grid. If the program works well, GetJar could give away new games every couple of weeks or so.

Mork said it was possible that GetJar could put ads in the free games and cross-promote paid apps. But that’s not part of this current experiment. One of GetJar’s primary strategies is to position its store as the place where apps can get discovered. This kind of trick for the discovery of apps is what we’ll be talking about at DiscoveryBeat 2010.（source:venturebeat）