Thanks to a $21 million cash infusion earlier this year, social app and game monetization firm Tapjoy this week announced the launch of Tapjoy Publishing, which will give early-stage and pre-launch games a way to use the company’s marketing distribution platform without the big bucks normally required for such access.
San Francisco-based Tapjoy plans to invest its capital and resources to support game development, after choosing games based on the quality of the gaming experience and the talent of each game’s developers, according to a company press release. Selected games will also have access to Tapjoy’s ad targeting technology, which gives users app download recommendations and has led to more than 1.5 million total application installs daily via iPhone, Android and iPad devices.
The company is seeking to give independent app developers a chance to swim in the same pond as major rivals in the app space – including Electronic Arts and Disney-Tapulous-Playdom – by giving them the same advantages afforded by bigger firms, according to CEO Mihir Shah. This move has garnered praise from partner 5th Planet Games, which has used Tapjoy to revive its Dawn of the Dragons game on Facebook. Robert Winkler, founder of 5th Planet Games, said using Tapjoy led to a 40 percent increase in monthly active users in just one month.
According to TechCrunch, it currently costs between $30,000 and $500,000 to launch an app on Tapjoy, which is an expensive figure for small developers not in the same league as companies such as Groupon, Tapulous, Kayak, Barnes & Noble, and MTV, that are already using the service.
Shah maintains that developers accepted on the platform will be able to “maintain ownership and creative control of their properties.” But it remains to be seen whether smaller developers will have true independence while being supported by a singular platform and just how they’ll fare against major competitors already established on Tapjoy and similar platforms.
