作者：Ricardo Bilton

我们已经描写了许多在VentureBeat Mobile Summit上所听到的经验教训，但是今天让我们谈谈一些特殊的内容：手机盈利，这是存在于每个开发者心中重要主题。

在手机上赚钱并不是件易事—-但却不一定是这样的。根据Game Insight和应用“Narr8”的业务开发副总裁Darya Trushkina，如果开发者专注于哪些战术更有效以及产业的未来发展趋势，他们的游戏和应用便有可能赚到钱。以下我们将阐述一些重要的经验教训。

重视Windows 8

当前的Windows 8生态系统还较小，但却不会永远只是这样。而这对于那些刚刚起步的开发者而言是个很好的机会。

Trushkina说道：“对于那些寻求更大突破的开发者而言，我会建议他们考虑Windows 8。如今的iOS和Android都太过拥挤了。而对于小型开发者而言，获得较高曝光率的成本实在太高了。”

基本上来看，因为在Windows 8上还不存在太多竞争者，任何在此发行的游戏都不会轻易被打败。微软也已经表明了想要对Windows 8的应用进行免费推广，这将能够帮助开发者们削减市场营销预算。

My Country(from google)

Game Insight的《My Country》便有效使用了这一策略，即在3月份进入了Windows 8并获得了超过35万的用户。Trushkina说道：“从早期的数字来看，我们拥有巨大的潜力能从这个平台上获取利益。Windows 8真的有可能成为最大的生态系统之一。”

面向全世界，但也必须了解你的市场

任何曾在多个市场中销售产品的公司都可以证实，在美国可行的策略在其它地方就不一定有效。手机游戏也不例外。

Trushkina说道：“你不能面向任何国家都创造同样的游戏。你必须让当地市场能觉得这是为它们而创造的游戏。你在美国市场所出售的游戏道具并不能以同样方式在日本销售。”

举个例子来说吧，Game Insight注意到，在日本，玩家完成内容的速度比美国玩家快了6倍，而韩国玩家甚至更快。这将推动着Game Insight基于玩家的需求去规划内容创造。

文化差异也会影响玩家花钱购买内容的决定。根据Trushkina，比起美国玩家，日本玩家更愿意进行应用内部消费。而诀窍便是尽早推出收费内容。

Trushkina说道：“比起美国，日本的每用户平均收入比例更高。如果你创造了高质量的内容并定制它，当地的用户便会更加喜欢这一内容。”

了解日本将给Game Insight带来很大的帮助，并因此多次登上日本游戏销量排行榜的最高位置—-这对于一家外国开发商而言是件很困难的事。Trushkina说道：“显然，很多开发者并不愿意在本土化策略中投入过多时间和精力。但是要知道，仅靠文本翻译是远远不够的。”

确保用户对新鲜的内容感兴趣

如果你想要挽留住用户，你就必须想办法吸引他们的注意。这也是Game Insight为何每周或两周发行一次新内容的主要原因。Trushkina说道：“用户总是想要看到更多内容，他们也喜欢不同的内容。这里所存在的挑战便是紧跟市场的脚步而创造出用户所喜欢的内容。”

不过真正的困难在于为早前的游戏开发新内容，而不只是为新游戏开发新内容。尽管不存在简单的技巧去保持这种平衡，但是如果成功做到这一点，开发者便能够提供用户基础并挽留住现有的用户。

如果你执行妥当的话，免费模式便能发挥作用

如果你只是通过手机横幅广告而赚钱的游戏开发者，那只能说你大错特错了。

Trushkina说道：“在手机上，手机广告并没有多大功效。”与大多数公司不同的是，Game Insight未使用任何广告去销售游戏，但却仍在目标平台上取得很好的成绩。因为比起依赖于广告，Game Insight更加专注于创造让人上瘾的游戏以及具有吸引力的应用内部购买。

“Narr 8”（游戏邦注：漫画阅读器）也使用了同样的策略，即免费提供给用户最初的漫画内容，并要求他们为之后的章节付费。基本上来看，如果你真的想要赚钱，那就先以免费模式吸引用户进入应用中，并让他们能在此上瘾，而不想离开。

了解你的平台

这并不是什么特别的内容，但说实话，Android和iOS是两个非常不同的巨大平台。Trushkina说道：“它们的区别源自各种条款和条件，以及应用的审批过程。”我们需要注意的是，这些不同将会影响开发者面向不同平台创造应用的方式。

苹果和谷歌在决定应用排行榜的排名时也具有不同标准，这对于开发者而言是很难理解的一个问题。Trushkina说道：“谷歌对于排行榜最顶端游戏的要求是，不断做出改变。”

考虑到已经有许多开发者投入了巨大成本去吸引更多用户，这便成为了非常重要的一个元素。如果不知道哪些标准将影响游戏排行，开发者们便很难去预测最终的成功。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Five big lessons in mobile monetization from top game developer Game Insight

By Ricardo Bilton

We’ve already written about how much wisdom came out of the VentureBeat Mobile Summit boardroom sessions, but let’s talk about something specific: mobile monetization, which is rightfully a subject on the minds of just about every developer.

Making money on mobile is tough — but it doesn’t have to be. According to Darya Trushkina, business development vice president at Game Insight and Narr8, developers can ensure their games and apps make cash by paying attention to what tactics work and where the industry is headed in the future. Below, we take a look at a few key lessons.

Invest in Windows 8 (seriously!)

The Windows 8 ecosystem is small right now — tiny, even — but it won’t stay that way for long. And that’s a mighty big opportunity for developers just starting out.

“For developers looking to make the biggest breakthrough, I would suggest considering Windows 8. iOS and Android are both way overcrowded. The cost to get into top visibility spots is too high for any small developer to get into,” Trushkina said.

Basically, because there’s not much competition on the platform, any game that gets released won’t be fighting for exposure. And Microsoft has demonstrated that it’s very much interested in giving Windows 8 apps free promotion, which cuts precious dollars off developers’ marketing budgets.

It’s a strategy that’s so far worked pretty well for Game Insight’s My Country, which hit Windows 8 in March and has already reached over 350,000 users. “From early numbers we see there’s great potential to make money from this platform. Windows 8 has a really good chance to become one of the big ecosystems,” Trushkina said.

Think global, but know your markets

As any company that’s ever sold a product in multiple markets can confirm, what works in the U.S. probably won’t work as well elsewhere. And mobile games are no exception to that.

“You can’t create the same game across countries. They need to feel like game was created just for them. The same items you sell in the U.S. wont sell the same way in Japan,” Trushkina said.

For example, Game Insight noticed that, in Japan, players go through content six times as fast as those in U.S, and Koreans are even faster. This forced Game Insight to scale their content creation based on the demands of gamers (more on that below).

Cultural differences even apply to what extent players are willing to pay for content. According to Trushkina, Japanese gamers are much more likely than Americans to pay for apps and in-app add-ons. The trick, however, is to ask for money early.

“Revenue-per-user rates are much higher in Japan than here. If you create high-quality content and customize it,  local users will enjoy it more,” Trushkina said.

Understanding Japan has been a big help to Game Insight, which regularly takes top spots in Japanese sales charts, which, as a foreign developer, is tough to do. “It’s kind of obvious but not many developers are not willing to put time and effort into localization. Translation is not enough,” Trushkina said.

Keep users interested with fresh content

If you want to retain your customers, you’ve got to keep them interested. This is why Game Insight releases new content for its games on a weekly or biweekly basis. “Users want more and more content, and they want different content. The challenge is to keep up with the market to produce content users want,” Trushkina said.

The real trick, however, is developing that new content for old titles alongside new content for new titles. While there’s no simple tip for maintaining that balance, the developers that pull it off will be able to increase their customer bases while retaining the users they already have.

Free-to-play works … if you do it right

If you’re a game developer trying to make cash solely off mobile banner ads, well, you’re doing it wrong.

“Mobile ads don’t work well on phones,” says Trushkina. Unlike most companies, Game Insight sells its games with no advertising and still does well on the platforms it creates for. Instead of relying on banners, Game Insight focuses on creating addictive games and attractive in-app purchases.

A similar strategy applies to comic reading app Narr8, which offers users initial comics free but makes them pay for later episodes. Basically, if you want to make the real money, let users in for free and get them addicted so that they never leave.

Know your platform

This might not come as a big surprise, but Android and iOS are very different beasts. “The differences start with their terms and conditions and go all the way to their app approval process,” Trushkina said, noting that this changes the way developers create apps for each platform.

Apple and Google also have different criteria for determining which apps reach the top of their charts, which for developers is one of the toughest things to understand. “Google’s algorithm for getting into top positions is changing all the time,” Trushkina said.

That’s a big deal considering how much developers already spend trying to attract more users to their apps. Not knowing which criteria have the greatest effect on placement makes it much harder to predict success.(source:venturebeat)