Muse.On-The.Net

Advertising is touted as a natural fit for the internet culture - nobody wishes to pay for anything but most people are willing to exchange viewing advertising for that privilege. The internet is not free, of course, in that there is cost for access, usually a fixed rate per month. On the mobile internet, this cost is often not fixed and can be outrageously expensive, with per kilobyte charges. While far from prohibitive, this cost is a factor when advertising is dynamically inserted. Over sufficient time, it is possible to spend more on network costs for the advertising than for outright purchase of the merchandise.

Kalador has created a clever technology called FreePlay that provides a best of both worlds scenario. FreePlay games are downloaded at no cost from the MobileRated free mobile games portal. Gamers are free to play the game as often as they like - with built in advertising. However, at any time the game can be purchased outright, removing the advertising and enabling the game as a fully featured product. So, each game can be treated as a free trial during the advertising period. If the game isn’t interesting, the cost was zero to try it once. if the game is interesting but not something one would play many times, the gamer can view a few advertisements and enjoy the game indefinitely at the very low rate of the network charges for dynamic ad rotation (usually less than 1K of data per viewing). However, if the game is one that will be played over and over again, the gamer may choose to save network charges and purchase the game outright. In this way, the gamer is in control for each game and pays only what makes sense for each game.

Straight advertising models do not provide this freedom. For the most popular games, the advertising becomes not only potentially annoying and repetitious, but more costly. To find, pay for, and download a new ad-free version is not only time consuming, onerous, and inefficient, but creates the unnecessary overhead of an additional game download when calculating network data costs. Straight purchase models do not provide the ability to try before purchase. Those few places that allow demos often require additional downloads when purchasing, but also do not allow the flexibility one desires in a marginal game. Indeed, many games may not seem worth the fixed price, but worthwhile via an advertising model.

Which download models make the most sense to you? Write me your thoughts and I’ll follow-up in a future column.