Data & Research

Smartphone game revenue surges in Brazil, Turkey, Russia and Mexico

Distimo marks four as regions to watch

Smartphone game revenue surges in Brazil, Turkey, Russia and Mexico
Brazil, Turkey, Russia and Mexico represent the best markets for developers hunting growth, with said territories enjoying the strongest app revenue surges outside of East Asia.

That's according to a report by app analytics specialist Distimo, with the firm claiming growth rates in these four nations on Apple's App Store for iPhone ranging from 54 percent to 115 percent on the App Store for iPhone.

No Russian

As such, Distimo advises developers looking to target multiple markets to "keep an eye on these countries", with growth in all four likely to accelerate in the months and years ahead.



Localisation, however, appears to be key.

In Russia, for instance, Distimo notes that 70 percent of revenue from the top 200 grossing apps is generated by the 4 percent that are translated into the country's native language.

Overall, however, Russia is a market worth making a move on whatever your OS of choice, with Distimo figures claiming app revenue on Google Play has jumped 250 percent since last year.

It's in the game

In terms of business models, Distimo states consumers in Russia and Turkey favour freemium apps, with more than half of all app revenue generated by in-app purchases (IAPs) employed within free releases.

In Mexico and Brazil, however, customers favour paid apps without IAPs.



Whatever your monetisation model, however, Distimo asserts games are the place to be in all four markets.

Games, which only launched as a category on the App Store in Brazil in April 2012, have triggered an 80 percent jump in the marketplace's revenues. In fact, in all four of the counties, Games is the single iPhone app category that generates the most revenue.

You can download the report in full over on Distimo's website.

[source: Distimo]
Staff Writer

PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013