Given PapayaMobile's strength on Android and the apparent uncomfortable nature of Tapjoy's relationship with Apple, news the two parties are to link up on Google's OS certainly seems logical.

The partnership, however, is not driven by any platform-specific ideologies, but rather a desire to aid the discovery of games on Android, with the two firms linking their SDKs to combine Papaya's social community with Tapjoy's in-app marketplace.

Social success

Dubbed Social Marketplace for Android, the new venture will, in both firm's view, "enable players to discover new mobile games based on the popularity of those games within the Papaya social network".

By garnering info on what a user's friends are playing, Tapjoy will also be able to deliver more relevant and targeted ads to the platform's userbase, offering developers greater monetisation and, hopefully, triggering a rise in downloads.

"Our entire business is built around delivering as much value to consumers as possible, and clearly there's considerable value in helping them discover new games based on what their friends are playing," said Tapjoy president and CEO Mihir Shah.

"PapayaMobile's social network has the scale and reach, particularly across the US and China, to help make our ads further targeted and more engaging for users."

Mighty match-up

Both parties claim the new offering will be available to developers before the end of the year.

No new code is needed – rather, studios will simply need to implement the existing Papaya and Tapjoy SDKs in their apps.

"Tapjoy is the industry leader when it comes to ad networks that deliver proven, effective distribution and monetization," added PapayaMobile CEO and co-founder Si Shen.

"By teaming with Tapjoy for a Social Marketplace, we’ll be able to offer game developers the very best advertising solution."