Analysis of Mobile App Revenue Models Used in the most Popular Games of the Tower Defense Genre on Google Play

Authors

  • Michael Groeschel Mannheim University of Applied Sciences
  • Tim Schäfer

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24203/ajcis.v8i1.6038

Keywords:

revenue model, business model, mobile apps, Google Play, mobile games

Abstract

This paper analyzes the revenue models of the most popular games of the Tower Defense genre on Google Play. A special look is taken at the quantitative distribution of the app sale model and the free model in terms of quality and download numbers. Additionally, this paper considers the qualitative implementation of the “free†model in the most popular games. First, the usual revenue models of mobile apps will be discussed and then the Tower Defense genre will be explained. Following that, the quantitative distribution of revenue models and an analysis of the most popular apps’ respective revenue models will be addressed. The analysis also identifies and explains two modifications of established revenue models. The most popular revenue model for mobile apps in the Tower Defense genre are in-app purchases. This distinguishes the genre from many other genres and games. A wide range of Tower Defense games utilizes the revenue models app sale and free. It becomes apparent that revenue models for mobile apps must be analyzed and considered specifically for their respective sector, and that no single promising revenue model for apps exists.

References

42matters AG: Store Stats for Mobile Apps. 2019, https://42matters.com/stats, Retrieved February 9, 2019

adjust: Mobile Benchmarks 2018. https://www.adjust.com/resources/ebooks/mobile-benchmarks-report-2018, Retrieved February 9, 2019

App Annie: Umsatz mit mobile Apps weltweit in den Jahren 2015 und 2016 sowie eine Prognose für 2017 und 2021 (in Milliarden US-Dollar). 2017, https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/550222/umfrage/umsatz-mit-apps-weltweit/, Retrieved February 7, 2019

AppBrain: Number of Android Applications. 2019, https://www.appbrain.com/stats, Retrieved February 7, 2019

AppBrain: Free vs. paid Android apps. 2019, https://www.appbrain.com/stats/free-and-paid-android-applications, Retrieved February 7, 2019

App Promo: Apple’s App Store had double Google’s million dollar publishers in 2018. 2019, http://app-promo.com/apples-app-store-had-double-googles-million-dollar-publishers-in-2018/, Retrieved February 7, 2019

Ariely, D. und Kreisler, J.: Teuer ist relativ. Ullstein, Berlin, 2018

Avery, P.; Togelius, J.; Alistar, E.; van Leeuwen R. P.: Computational intelligence and tower defence games. In: 2011 IEEE Congress of Evolutionary Computation (CEC), New Orleans, LA, 2011, pp.1084-1091

Crussell, J., Stevens, R., Chen, H.: MAdFraud: investigating ad fraud in android applications. In Proceedings of the 12th annual international conference on Mobile systems, applications, and services (MobiSys '14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2014, pp.123-134

DaSilva, C. M. und Trkman, P.: Business Model: What It Is and What It Is Not. In: Long Range Planning, Volume 47, Issue 6 (2014), pp.379-389

Dörndorfer, J.: Mobile Revenue Model Catalogue – MRMC, Erlösmodellselektor. oJ, http://mrmc.if.haw-landshut.de/survey, Retrieved February 7, 2019

Dörndorfer, J. und Seel, C.: Mobile Revenue Model Catalogue: A guide through the diversity of mobile revenue models. In: Hofmann, R., Alm, W. (Hrsg): Wissenstransfer in der Wirtschaftsinformatik, Fachgespräch im Rahmen der MKWI 2016. Hochschule Aschaffenburg, Information Management Institut, Aschaffenburg, 2016, pp.10-18

Dörndorfer, J. und Seel, C.: Erlösmodelle von mobilen Anwendungen – Eine Analyse ausgewählter Modelle. In: Barton, T., Herrmann, F., Meister, V. G., Müller, C., Seel, C. (Hrsg.): Prozesse, Technologie, Anwendungen, Systeme und Management 2017: Angewandte Forschung in der Wirtschaftsinformatik. mana-Buch, Heide, 2017, pp.146-156

Dörndorfer, J. und Seel, C.: MRMC – Eine Plattform zur Selektion von Erlösmodellen für mobile Anwendungen. In: Barton, T., Herrmann, F., Meister, V. G., Müller, C., Seel, C., Steffens, U. (Hrsg.): Angewandte Forschung in der Wirtschaftsinformatik. mana Buch, Heide, 2018, pp.254-263

Gassmann, O., Frankenberger, K., Csik, M.: Geschäftsmodelle entwickeln, 55 innovative Konzepte mit dem St. Galler Business Model Navigator. 2. Aufl., Hanser, München, 2017

Ghazawneh, A. und Mansour, O.: Value Creation in Digital Application Marketplaces: A Developers’ Perspective. In: Association for Information Systems (Hrsg.): International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2015): Exploring the Information Frontier, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, 2015, pp.1258-1274

Jansen S., Bloemendal E.: Defining App Stores: The Role of Curated Marketplaces in Software Ecosystems. In: Herzwurm G., Margaria T. (Hrsg.): Software Business, From Physical Products to Software Services and Solutions. ICSOB 2013. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 150. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013, pp. 195-206

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y.: Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2010

Richardson, L.: Beautiful Soap. oJ, https://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/, Retrieved February 9, 2019

Schäfer, T.: Skript PlayStoreScraper. 2018, https://github.com/1610337/PlayStoreScraper, Retrieved February 9, 2019

Trefis.com: Schätzung des durchschnittlichen Preises kostenpflichtiger Apps für das iPhone und iPad weltweit in den Jahren 2009 bis 2023 (in US-Dollar). 2017, https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/ 170003/umfrage/

preisentwicklung-von-apps-in-den-fuehrenden-app-stores-weltweit/, Retrieved February 7, 2019

Downloads

Published

2020-02-21

How to Cite

Analysis of Mobile App Revenue Models Used in the most Popular Games of the Tower Defense Genre on Google Play. (2020). Asian Journal of Computer and Information Systems, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.24203/ajcis.v8i1.6038

Similar Articles

11-20 of 32

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.